Saturday afternoon personal

Got up a little early for me (11:00). Called the insurance agent about increasing my homeowners coverage. She'll have the paperwork ready for me to sign by next Saturday at their office. Meanwhile I notified Citi about it. (I'm applying for a mortgage refinance through them and they're the ones requesting the change in my homeowners insurance.)

Heading back to bed for a nap, but first sipping some Strawberry Riesling wine (on sale at Publix a few weeks back). Pretty good. And it's made in Florida (at a place in Plant City). I didn't even know we had wineries in Florida, per se. (I know we have a native grape, the muscadine.)

From Wikipedia:

Muscadines have been used for making commercial fine wines and port wines dating back to the 16th Century in and around St. Augustine, Florida.

BTW, I myself have made wine before. When I was growing up, my parents bought a wine-making kit. (We had a prolific grapefruit tree in the backyard at the time, and I think my father tried to make grapefruit wine.) But as I recall, I used it twice to make wine from bottled Welch's concord grape juice. Not bad (though I was a minor at the time and only had a taste). I'd made it for my parents, and they drank it at dinner and liked it. (There was just a little sediment at the bottom of the bottle.)

I usually don't drink wine, especially white wine - I find it too acidic for my stomach. (And I've had GERD and now have Barrett's esophagus.) Again, from Wikipedia:

Both macroscopic (from endoscopy) and microscopic positive findings are required to make a diagnosis. Barrett's esophagus is marked by the presence of columnar epithelia in the lower esophagus, replacing the normal squamous cell epithelium—an example of metaplasia. The secretory columnar epithelium may be more able to withstand the erosive action of the gastric secretions; however, this metaplasia confers an increased risk of adenocarcinoma.^[9]

The metaplastic columnar cells may be of two types: gastric (similar to those in the stomach, which is NOT technically Barrett's esophagus) or colonic (similar to cells in the intestines). A biopsy of the affected area will often contain a mixture of the two. Colonic-type metaplasia is the type of metaplasia associated with risk of malignancy in genetically susceptible people.

The metaplasia of Barrett's esophagus is grossly visible through a gastroscope, but biopsy specimens must be examined under a microscope to determine whether cells are gastric or colonic in nature. Colonic metaplasia is usually identified by finding goblet cells in the epithelium and is necessary for the true diagnosis of Barrett's.

[Emphasis added.] I think it's pretty smart that the body replaces part of the lower esophagus with cells that are better able to withstand the acid from the stomach. But then there's the increased cancer risk. So I have to have this condition monitored.

The risk of developing esophageal adenocarcinoma in people who have Barrett's esophagus has been estimated to be 6–7 per 1000 person-years,^[19][20] however a cohort study of 11,028 patients from Denmark published in 2011 showed an incidence of only 1.2 per 1000 person-years (5.1 per 1000 person-years in patients with dysplasia, 1.0 per 1000 person-years in patients without dysplasia).^[21]

(In case you're wondering what a "person-year" is, I've found this definition: "a statistical measure representing one person at risk of development of a disease during a period of 1 year.")

I'll never forget the appointment I had with the gastroenterologist following my endoscopy (and a colonoscopy, done on the same day). He said, "You have Barrett's," as if I knew what that was, "Barrett's dysplasia." (I think I now know all about it that a layman can possibly know.)

(BTW, I now take Prilosec (or a generic) every day and, as you know, love my chili now. Prilosec put an end to the GERD at last. I'd started taking it, on my own initiative, way prior to the endoscopy and by then my esophagus had healed itself, albeit strangely.)

It's too windy outside today to deploy the cat-door insert for the slider. Lucas is a little disappointed (and Boozy, too, it seems). But the wind was blowing the cat door wide open and gushing through.