THB goes into maintenance mode, the Loft is fixed, and Japanese toilets have been upgraded yet again

The big news on the local front:

N. California is getting a ton of needed rain and snow and THB thinks going to the LA Philharmonic on J's b'day is the reason, it's an El Nino year for sure

THB is in maintenance mode...fortunately, no longer drinking a ton!

The labs confirm THB has Necrotizing Myositis. Dr D, the rheumatologist, believes that the statins triggered an autoimmune response and even with no longer taking statins (stopped on Nov 20 when rhabdo was the diagnosis) THB's body is creating antibodies and attacking his muscles, and giving him lovely thinner thighs. 

For foreseeable future: Prednisone to bring CPKs down to normal levels followed by Cellcept, an immunosuppressant, to keep them down. How long will this regimen go for? Yeah, right! Let's just say that THB foresees standard visits to Labcorp for regular blood draws well into 

2017. 

Side effects have been really minimal: old man walking style, slow and careful; wakefulness in the middle of the night (prednisone!); and great results at bridge tournaments. Not bad...it coulda been a whole lot worse. 

Coming up: our S. America trip was rescheduled, so blog posts will start flooding your inboxes starting around February 20. And, 

The Loft is back together

The damage

the damaged sheet rock is removed

The Japanese toilet is stored in the shower...VERY JAPANESE!

Sheet rock is back in place

And the toilet is back in (some tiling in back left to be done)

You know THB has not been to Japan lately. That doesn't keep him from keeping loyal followers up on the latest toilet news. Just in case you don't want those bathroom germs infecting your smart phone (since they aren't making bathroom slippers for the phones yet), here is second best: toilet paper for your phone. And, THB doesn't think, though he's not really sure, that there aren't mini-toilets in the bathrooms just for the phones (we used to call those "sinks" when THB was a kid). 

Please note: the signage is all in English. Guess the Japanese don't need words to know what to do here.

16/09