Scribbled Musings

There’s a warehouse-style building in the shopping complex nearest us, empty since we moved to the area in late 2020. I was under the assumption it was a Dollar Store that had closed long ago. Construction seems to have started this summer when we were away in Iowa. I tried to find out who the new tenant would be and in that search, finally looked at Google Street View for that corner and went back in time. Turns out it was an ACE Hardware store that closed right at the start of the pandemic. If only this store had been open during our home renovations!

There are none nearby now, but every ACE Hardware store I’ve been in has been filled with helpful and knowledgeable people who work with you to find the right approach to solving your problem, meeting you at your level of expertise. This has been my experience regardless of the employee’s age, across states and locations.

I’ve seen some of this at our nearest Lowe’s/Home Depot, but it is usually the employees over 50 with specialized experience, and their numbers are dwindling. The younger ones seem to prioritize keeping corporate happy and I’ve found them almost regimented with their impatience. To the point that the paint specialist at our local Lowe’s has different personalities depending on whether his younger supervisor is around the general area. He’s far more helpful when he’s by himself.

I find it remarkable that ACE, despite its co-op model, has been able to maintain a consistent hiring/training policy that seems to self-select for individuals with a far higher base level of empathy than the big box stores. Obviously Team Blue/Orange have a large chunk of contractor business to deal with as well which may skew the in-store experience.

Lowe’s seems to have recognized this though and some of their recent surveys have many questions targeted at this aspect of the store experience. Hopefully that results in some changes that help the odd novice DIYer. YouTube University can only do so much.

About five years ago, I started to feel that my hearing was deteriorating. I could fix it temporarily by popping my ears, but overall it felt like sounds would be muffled just a teeny bit enough for me to feel annoyed that I couldn’t hear as well as I used to. It wasn’t an issue when wearing headphones but real life speech was the biggest concern for me. I’d almost always miss words said at transitions into plosives. I’d got my ears checked at an ENT whose auditory test consisted of generating a frequency response plot of both my ears by playing tones. Doctor’s opinion was that it was at the top end of parameters, accounting for degradation for my age.

Around the same time, I had also gone into a neurologist, who’d performed EEG & MRI to determine if there was anything else at play to see if the wiring was wrong because the microphone was fine apparently. No issues there. These tests were suggested as I’d reported some subtle vision issues during the examination.

My sight is minimal (+0.5) so while the generic recommendation to use computer glasses was suggested, a problem that arose around the same time was difficulty in keeping my eyes focused on anything moving. I’d been intimated of a possible depth perception issue by a research assistant at UofR who was looking for volunteers for a 2008 era eye tracking research project as part of an HCI study, but I never thought much of it. I played cricket competitively for a few years after it and never felt like I couldn’t sight the ball during the subsequent 8 years. May be it was just good hand eye coordination built up over the years.

Eye health otherwise was clear so the doc suggested Vision Therapy. It was difficult to find any one willing to take on an adult during the pandemic as most pratices usually cater to pediatric patients. Finally found a spot at a Sports focused vision therapy practice run by a couple and over a period of 6 months using training aids and VR, they taught me exercises to be able to consciously control the eye movement enough to that I felt there focusing improve. Most of these were to separate the act of focusing between tracking and panning. VR especially helped as it could eliminate out the hand-eye coordination aspect of real world scenarios. I’d also resumed my motorcycling during this period, where these new techniques were being exercised without much thought, because the need for it was much higher.

Again, both of these perceptions of deteriorations, were ruled within parameters, but it bothered me enough to seek out help. I could function fine without any issues, pop my ears regularly, lip read if needed and be more conscious of the plane in which any object is at.

During these 5 years, 4 of my annual physicals were scheduled around the same time that I was sick/ recovering from being sick. Flu/bacterial/COVID - whatever was the cycle of the year. While the bloodwork was focused on my hypothyroidism, everything else was within range, apart from being slightly overweight. Urine though had microscopic blood, which the doc felt was either an active infection or evidence of the recovery from the recent illnesses. Twice the choice was to do a course of antibiotics and the subsequent follow up diagnostic work were clear.

This year’s physical though was done while in good health and the urine sample still showed Microscopic Hematuria. PCP scheduled an Urology consult going on a hunch of kidney stones. This meant an ultrasound of the kidney, which ended up being clear, followed by a Cystoscopy. A literal camera going up your urethra to check in the bladder for tumors. Vasectomy is a breeze compared to this abomination. Also clear. But at that consult as well as a subsequent follow-up, the microscopic hematuria persisted. Follow-up Kidney and liver function tests in the clear. Time for a nephrologist then, goes the PCP. I delayed going to this consult by about a month because this was feeling like a wild goose chase. All of this testing but I didn’t have any symptoms of renal disease other than trace blood in the urine.

Nephrologist had me go through another round of kidney and liver function tests, autoimmune markers, a contrast CT of the kidney as well as ureters to rule out stones completely and a gene panel focused on Renal disease, mainly to rule out autoimmune disorders.

This was done by Natera, whose stock wasn’t kind to my post COVID investment portfolio. 4 weeks later, today the nephrologist called with the gene panel results - a mutation affecting certain collagen chains that causes them to be “structurally less stable and more susceptible to biomechanical strain “. These mutated chains are usually exclusive to the kidneys, eyes and inner ears. Hello Alport Syndrome - symptoms - hematuria, vision impediments and abnormal conduction of sound waves via electrical signals to the brain.

While the gene panel confirms it, apparently is not FDA approved yet so a kidney biopsy is next. Mostly a mild case given the other findings, but it still needs to be done to chart out the course. I’m relieved to just say to myself that I wasn’t imagining things all these years. I was just experiencing the mutation at its elemental self.

For the first time ever, we returned a Costco purchase after daily use close to 10 months. It was one of those Thomasville sectionals but every aspect of workmanship from that brand seems suspect in long term use.

I took far too long to initiate the return because morally it felt wrong, almost an abuse of their return policy. But dealing with its quirks on a day to day basis got on my nerves. It was one of those modular sectionals whose modularity stopped working after a reconfigurations. We usually did them when guests were coming over as we usually had them in a dog friendly config otherwise. The cushion fill material grade also wasn’t the best causing even bottom cushions to go out of shape and in spite of following manufacturer recommendations as well as YouTube suggestions, replacing the fill material was the only solution left.

But more than anything, it was trying out Lovesac at a recent Costco visit that convinced me. It’s the same concept but felt like how it would be if done right. We’ve had the boxes get delivered over the last week and from the videos the assembly process looks involved and daunting.

Who knows if I’m replacing one set of problems with another but today when the Costco pickup crew arrived, the Thomasville sectional leaving our home evoked a sense of joy, all tied to not having to deal with that piece of furniture again.

We are having similar issues with our Thomasville bed as well. May end up doing the same there too.