The photo is a banner from the Matthew West, Live Forever Tour that featured Colton Dixon. I was fortunate to go to the show on April 17th, in Lakeland, Florida.
First off, my apologies to the few that do keep up with me on here. It’s been sometime since my last update.
I recently returned from wintering in Florida. I’m gonna share some in this which was none too fun, but nevertheless was life for me.
It’s probably a good thing I’m single, because on Saturday February 14th, Valentine’s Day, I had an issue where I was unable to pee. I suffered all day, dribbling a little now and then. Finally at 7:30 pm, I decided I’d better go to the hospital. I got all registered and was waiting anxiously to be called, when I felt like I was going to be able to urinate. So I went to the bathroom and voided about 350 cc (approximately 12 fl oz), which is a standard pee for me. So here I thought to myself, “awesome, I won’t have to be cathed and can just go ‘home.'” Not so, the hospital wanted to perform a foley catheter on me anyhow. It’s a good thing they did because on top of the 350 I had recently voided, I did another 900 in the bag. Total, that’s approximately 40 oz of urine!
They sent me home with a leg bag and I went to the urologist on Tuesday to have the catheter removed. Needless to say, I was glad to be rid of that thing and I was further relieved 4 hours and about 60 oz of water later, when finally I felt the urge and everything came out fine. I now spell relief with a pee!
On Thursday, March 3rd, I went with my parents, my sister Nikki and my friend Bobbie to see The Newsboys in concert. Ironically they would also perform later that month in my home town of Port Huron, Michigan. So I likely would have seen them either way. Though, I must confess for me it was better seeing them outside in 70 degree weather, rather than trudging through the cold and snow to see indoors.
On Monday, March 9th, my parents, my sister Nikki and I went to a Detroit Tigers spring-training game at Joker Merchant Stadium, in Lakeland, Florida. They played the Toronto Blue Jays, and they won 6-4.
On Thursday, March 12th, I went to the podiatrist (aka foot doctor) because the toes on my left foot were hurting as the little piggy and his next door neighbor were curling under, so I had been walking on top of them. I had developed what is known as hammertoes. The doctor suggested that I try a crest pad, which is a cushion for hammertoes. It worked for the sharp pain of walking on top one’s toes, but the pad (actually a piece of hard rubber) presented a new level of discomfort, because it felt like I had a rock in my shoe whether I was walking or not. In fact, it felt most uncomfortable when I wasn’t walking.
So on Thursday, April 14th, after a month trying the crest pad, I went back to the podiatrist, who said that if it wasn’t working he could do a tendon release on the toes in question. I had opted for this procedure. A more permanent solution, rather than contending with a “rock” in my shoe. The operation was an easy in office procedure, where the doctor froze my toes, then injected them with a local anaesthesia, next he took this little sanitized saw about the width and length of a pinky finger, and cut the tendons that were pulling my toes under. Afterward, he told me to keep them taped back for 3 weeks in order to retrain the toes, until scar tissue formed.
As indicated above, three days later, on Friday, April 17th, my parents and I went to the Matthew West Live Forever tour, that made a stop at Victory Church in Lakeland, Florida. The show featured Colton Dixon and Mr. Talkbox. Colton Dixon is a stellar musician, but Matthew West as well as being a great musician, is an exceptional storyteller. He engages his audience and had me laughing out loud on numerous occasions.
We left for home on Friday, April 24th, and stayed the night in Georgia. From Georgia we drove and tried to find a hotel in Kentucky, but every hotel room off of I-75 was booked solid because of some event called Rolex Kentucky. So we just figured we’d drive to Ohio and stay there. But once we were in Ohio, we noticed that we were only 5 hours away from home. So we drove straight through the night and pulled into Port Huron around 5:30 am. I crawled into bed around 7 am and got back up at 3 pm. Then I slept another 8 hours that night!
For the first time, I came back from Florida without a solid tan. While I was down, I had decided that laying in the sun for a tan is hardly worth the time it takes. It’s all so superficial, and fades away much too fast.
