"Tony" Thought Journal 3.0

Tony Page said:
The other night, when my wife was having BP issues, I called my daughter she lives with her family on the second floor. She didn’t even let my wife finish a sentence. She was on the phone calling 911. My wife looked that bad

This recent visit to the ER for my wife, my thoughts, was running downhill like a snowball in a mountain of snow rolling downhill and getting bigger and bigger until it's ready to burst. While sitting there watching her, I realized she's a lot more fragile than she seems. She's appears to be a strong lady.

I mean, she's a recent cancer patient in remission. A year before the cancer appeared, she had intestinal problems with 2 major surgeries within 3 months and wound up in the hospital for 10 days with each surgery, of which 3 of the days each time she was in ICU. She was septic and had peritonitis. I almost lost her twice. She has a colostomy now because of her intestinal problem. Adding to her a list of health issues is heart trouble.

I was thinking if I lost her, what would I do? She is my anchor, the main beam holding me up. I suppose I could survive, but one of the reasons for my survival would be gone. I fear the loneliness would be unbearable. I feel selfish like the "poor me syndrome." Worry about myself when my wife could be dying. All this depresses me. My worries, taking some of my sleep away, makes me tired.

It's been a couple of days since her hospital visit. Today, she is back to normal. I'm starting to be thinking better and clearer. My worries are getting lighter. It's going to be a good day.
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I wonder that same things @Tony Page . I have always assumed that I would die before my wife, as I am older and my family doesn't live long lives, while she has a family history of living into the hundreds. Her mother continued to visit us by herself until she was 90. She even came to the bush while we were there and took al long boat ride on a wilderness river for a picnic on a sandbar. She was one tough lady, and my wife is the same. I don't know what I would do if she predeceased me, but, like you, feel I would manage somehow. I have watched quite a number of long-married couples die within weeks of one another. My brother lost his wife just a few months short of 50 years married, but, although he became a recluse for a while, is now out and spending time with his wile's old friends and her family. He has taken on the mission of checking on the "old people" who are the same age as he is.
 
Beth Gallagher said:
I think many of us wonder what will become of us (or our spouse) when one of us dies. We have a lot of kids but they all live far from us, so it's basically going to be one of us on our own one day. It is a sobering thought but that's just the way life goes.
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My wife has told the kids, "If you think I am not going to be a burden, you are wrong." She means she plans to visit the children frequently. One of our kids is encouraging us to move somewhere warmer. He favors Arizona, as it is his favorite vacation spot and would enjoy a place to stay.:)
Another wanted us to move to Missouri at one time, but he has now moved to Nebraska, so that ain't happening either.

My wife and I don't agree on much, although we don't agree on that point either, so while free to move anywhere, we probably won't.
 
Don Alaska said:
My wife has told the kids, "If you think I am not going to be a burden, you are wrong." She means she plans to visit the children frequently. One of our kids is encouraging us to move somewhere warmer. He favors Arizona, as it is his favorite vacation spot and would enjoy a place to stay.:)
Another wanted us to move to Missouri at one time, but he has now moved to Nebraska, so that ain't happening either.

My wife and I don't agree on much, although we don't agree on that point either, so while free to move anywhere, we probably won't.
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I have never wanted to be a burden to my children and as long as I have my wits about me and a few dollars of my own I will stick to that. (Though I adore each of them we would drive each other crazy in 2 days.) I have no desire to move anywhere since my friends and everything familiar (doctors, shopping, my neighbors) are right here.

I do wish we had a house with at least one bedroom and full bath downstairs, though. We weren't thinking about being old when we built this house in 1994; we were just concerned with having enough bedrooms for 5 kids. :D
 
Beth Gallagher said:
I have never wanted to be a burden to my children and as long as I have my wits about me and a few dollars of my own I will stick to that. (Though I adore each of them we would drive each other crazy in 2 days.) I have no desire to move anywhere since my friends and everything familiar (doctors, shopping, my neighbors) are right here.

I do wish we had a house with at least one bedroom and full bath downstairs, though. We weren't thinking about being old when we built this house in 1994; we were just concerned with having enough bedrooms for 5 kids. :D
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We had a test run when I broke my back and we found we could live on one floor just fine. The upstairs bedroom and bath would then become guest quarters.
 
Yesterday I had plans on going outside and start to clean out my car with the expectation that I will get another one within the next few weeks. Instead I decided to stay in and put on lounge clothing and relax. I slept most of the late morning and afternoon, and got up just in time for dinner. My wife was feeling good enough to make a delicious tomato sauce with meat. She had meatballs, a piece of pork and beef in the sauce. I finally got my pasta and it was really delicious. My son-in-law had three heaping bowls of pasta plus half the meat. When he's hungry he can really put it down.

After dinner my wife and I settle down in front of the TV and finished watching season 2 of "A Man On The Inside" starring Ted Danson. It's a lite comedy/mystery series we've been watching.

It felt good to have a calm day. I went to bed early because I have an early appointment with my oncologist today. I have questions I wanted to ask her, I didn't write them down, and now I can't remember them. Hopefully they will come to me before I sit down with her.
 
Went to see my oncologist this morning and on the way back we (wife & I) stopped for lunch. They did their usual blood test and gave me a B12 shot, also picked up my prescription for hormone pills.

My blood readings were excellent so I asked her how come I never got a pet scan to verify the absence of cancer. She said I will get one this summer.

I questioned her about using the term cured, Beth she agreed to what you said that they don't use that term they use remission, she also said that term is being replaced by some to "no evidence of cancer." Which to me almost sounds more of a legal term. She said I was in remission, my wife said to me "does that make you happy now."

A rose is a rose no matter what you call it.

I started to interrogate her about cancer, then I said "you know what doc the less I know the better." She laughed and agreed.

She a great and patient doctor, I like her
 
I'm a little surprised that you will have a PET scan, Tony. After my treatment I have had no scans except for annual mammograms on my "good" side. My doctor said they don't continue scans unless a patient has new symptoms or is Stage 4. I'm glad you got a good report and some explanations that you wanted.

And yes, the designation of "NED" (or "NEAD" No evidence of active disease) has been around for several years now. I don't know why they feel compelled to update terminology; it just adds to the confusion.
 
Beth Gallagher said:
I'm a little surprised that you will have a PET scan, Tony. After my treatment I have had no scans except for annual mammograms on my "good" side. My doctor said they don't continue scans unless a patient has new symptoms or is Stage 4. I'm glad you got a good report and some explanations that you wanted.

And yes, the designation of "NED" (or "NEAD" No evidence of active disease) has been around for several years now. I don't know why they feel compelled to update terminology; it just adds to the confusion.
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The doctor did mention that the insurance companies do not want to pay for pet scans.
 
With post of troubles with products I started thinking (big mistake) it brought to mine my working past.
I spent most of my working life in quality mostly in the defense industry. I started as a lowly class C inspector and worked my way up to to a Sr. Quality Engineer. This post is not about showing how I achieved career growth, but the level of background in Quality.

Many times I think about how do companies put out the best product possible? In my humble opinion, it’s the culture of the company, the people in each discipline wanting to do there best to create a quality product. Like it's said the weakest link will break the chain, so to will the weakest discipline make a poor quality product.
If the disciplines like Mechanical, software, or electrical Engineering, manufacturing, parts suppliers, special processes, and quality are not working to good standards the product will suffer.

I believe when all the people of a company care to make a quality product it will happen. When the executives of a company put quality first, it will be carried out by management.

I realize the amount and type of testing for defense products, because of cost are not possible for commercial products. I have worked in commercial companies were the culture is not quality, it's quotas. I have seen production line personal reduce the amount of screws installed to keep up with the "clock."

I'll stop there, just a thought.
 
@Tony Page I think a lot of the issue is Chinese construction. Almost everything we buy has something Chinese in it even if it was "assembled" in the U.S. The Chinese know that we will buy almost anything if it is cheap enough regardless of the quality, and that extends to mother boards and controllers. The appliance may be expensive, but the manufacturers shop around for the cheapest parts, and one bad part can take the entire assembly down even if everything else in the product was great.
 
I received 2 more gardening catalogs today from Pinetree and Roots & rhizomes.

Perfect timing, they are an easy, enjoyable read on a day where I'm a little under the weather, I can just sit back and relax and peruse. My usual method is to mark items I'm interested in, then review them another day to see if my interest still holds.
 
The birdfeeder with the built in camera, which was gifted to me for Christmas 2024, has taken some nice photo over the last year.

One of the birds it captured has been around my property the last few years. When I first noticed it, I thought it was a cross between a chickadee and some other bird. After a little research I realized it's a House Finch. A pretty bird.

See photo.

1768261284545.jpeg
 
Tony Page said:
With post of troubles with products I started thinking (big mistake) it brought to mine my working past.
I spent most of my working life in quality mostly in the defense industry. I started as a lowly class C inspector and worked my way up to to a Sr. Quality Engineer. This post is not about showing how I achieved career growth, but the level of background in Quality.

Many times I think about how do companies put out the best product possible? In my humble opinion, it’s the culture of the company, the people in each discipline wanting to do there best to create a quality product. Like it's said the weakest link will break the chain, so to will the weakest discipline make a poor quality product.
If the disciplines like Mechanical, software, or electrical Engineering, manufacturing, parts suppliers, special processes, and quality are not working to good standards the product will suffer.

I believe when all the people of a company care to make a quality product it will happen. When the executives of a company put quality first, it will be carried out by management.

I realize the amount and type of testing for defense products, because of cost are not possible for commercial products. I have worked in commercial companies were the culture is not quality, it's quotas. I have seen production line personal reduce the amount of screws installed to keep up with the "clock."

I'll stop there, just a thought.
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Tony what kind of product do you inspect, is military or industrial?
 
Don Alaska said:
@Tony Page I think a lot of the issue is Chinese construction. Almost everything we buy has something Chinese in it even if it was "assembled" in the U.S. The Chinese know that we will buy almost anything if it is cheap enough regardless of the quality, and that extends to mother boards and controllers. The appliance may be expensive, but the manufacturers shop around for the cheapest parts, and one bad part can take the entire assembly down even if everything else in the product was great.
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I can sure relate to this just looking at our washing machine, rusting around the top. It may be 10 yr.s old, the old never rusted and it was almost 30.
 
Marie Mallory said:
Tony what kind of product do you inspect, is military or industrial?
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I've done both, but more military. I work for a company where we built simulators. One of my programs was the Republic aircraft co. A10 Warthog aircraft. We built the cockpit with the simulation software and simulated instrumentation. I tried flying it a few times and crashed everytime. I met some pilots, who would come and try the plane to see if it felt like the the real thing. The joystick was important to feel correct.
I met some interesting people both military and engineers
 
Tony Page said:
I've done both, but more military. I work for a company where we built simulators. One of my programs was the Republic aircraft co. A10 Warthog aircraft. We built the cockpit with the simulation software and simulated instrumentation. I tried flying it a few times and crashed everytime. I met some pilots, who would come and try the plane to see if it felt like the the real thing. The joystick was important to feel correct.
I met some interesting people both military and engineers
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That sounds like a interesting important job.:cool:
 
Marie Mallory said:
That sounds like a interesting important job.:cool:
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Yes it was kind of an important job it also had a lot of responsibility. As a quality engineer you're responsible for making sure all drawings and product are built to the requirements of the contract. I always started with a thorough contract review. I had a very good memory back then and had a good knowledge of the spec's.

I went to school to become a high reliability soldering trainer at Fort Monmouth in NJ. I would teach employees how to wire and solder to Mil-Std 2000 back then.
 
Tony Page said:
Yes it was kind of an important job it also had a lot of responsibility. As a quality engineer you're responsible for making sure all drawings and product are built to the requirements of the contract. I always started with a thorough contract review. I had a very good memory back then and had a good knowledge of the spec's.

I went to school to become a high reliability soldering trainer at Fort Monmouth in NJ. I would teach employees how to wire and solder to Mil-Std 2000 back then.
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I wanted to study marine life, interest in dolphins, after studying Marine Science and realizing it would be too time consuming with 3 young kids I realized it isn't going to happen.
Although I aced the college SAT score so well , the principle wanted me to take it again, said I went as high as 4 years of college on my test.
I too had a great memory also very inquisitive.
 
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