After 14 months of riding, I finished my ride from Finland to Greece! Just in time for the next challenge, which is all over South America... Rio, Argentina, Bogota, Chile, and Bolivia.

I slept mostly OK, but was a little alarmed to see the AHI score rising again at 6.2. Still pretty sure it's allergies, which is why I really wish to hell I could have the nasal valve surgery. I believe it would help a lot. OTC stuff only gets me so far, and shots are out of the question for me. I am truly, genuinely worried for the future of health care before I turn 65. I worry that they're gonna cut more and more out of the private insurance plans and then do away with them altogether before I can get on Medicare. This is a real fear for me. I know they’d treat me in an emergency, but I'd hate to have to wait and let things get dire before I could get any help. Yes, we could get the everyday things taken care of through an Amazon plan that costs $100 a year and labs that cost about 30 bucks a pop, but if I needed a specialist, I'd be screwed.

As a psychic, I know I'm never going to get the blessing of getting anything that will kill me before he dies. Just things that could make me miserable. When I think of mouth guards and nasal valve surgery, it really frustrates the fuck out of me to know these devices and tools are out there that could help me, yet they're so far out of reach. What's the point of creating them if you're not going to help people? I hate this fucking country and all the Republicans taking over, and I'm anything but proud to be American. Fuck them and their “everyone can work and everyone can pay their own way” mentality.

I still have a throat tickle at times and feel like my neck doesn't quite feel right, even though my thyroid doesn't feel enlarged, at least when I reach up and feel my neck. And I could still use a mouth guard and nasal surgery.

Furthermore, I wonder if I could have Cushing syndrome. I don't have all the symptoms as with CF, but I have enough of them, and they don't test cortisol levels during routine blood work. I get that he thinks it's a good idea to wait until next year, since we wouldn't want to get hooked up with a specialist just to find they're not in network with whatever plan I have next year. At the same time, I worry that I’ll regret not acting sooner. I have so many symptoms: weight gain (especially in the middle), moon face, buffalo hump, fatigue, facial hair, cognitive issues with focus and memory, and high blood pressure, blood sugar, and cholesterol. Interestingly enough, tumors can cause Cushing, including on the adrenal glands, and that's where they found the fatty tumor. They said it was harmless, though. Long-term use of nasal steroids can do it too, but that's another thing the ENT said was safe.

At least one of us has some good health news. He went for a routine eye exam and the doctor asked if he'd like to have his other eye done, and he said he would, but his insurance company wouldn't pay for it. So then the doctor said, “Well, if I write it down on a piece of paper saying you need it, then they will.” So he's going to get his other eye done, which is great! The only negative is that he'll lose a few donations again. He'll still need glasses for reading, but his overall vision will be way better than mine.

Anyway, I'm a little tired today, but that's more likely because I was up so long yesterday as opposed to the AHI score. I was just so excited between the new phone, finishing my ride, and then the new challenge coming out.

Tomorrow I'm going to get woken up, though, because if the mowers don't wake me up by sound, then they will by smell. I was really hoping that the CPAP would filter out smells, but it doesn’t. And of course, we're gonna get some rainy and potentially stormy days given where my schedule is now. That makes me so mad, too. I'm so sick of this happening every time I'm on nights. As I've already said plenty of times, it can't be a coincidence that it always turns out this way. All we had while I was on days was one quick rainstorm, although the power did go out, which would have woken me up.

Gonna pair my old Bluetooth speaker with my computer that's out by the kitchen. The computer's speaker is too tinny. I want something with a little more bass, especially when the fucking planes are annoying.