Medicines, etc.

I have a younger friend who had a triple bypass (I think that's what it was) 17 years ago. And she's been taking lots of medicines ever since, some 3 times a day.

I only do mine twice a day, and I've managed to put some of the "one time a day" ones in the evening, and some in the morning...so there are usually only 5-7 at a time, and only 4 that need taking twice a day.

Then that little white machine with the clear plastic tube is the nebulizer, and I hook one of those blue mouthpieces on it and fill them with two different medicine to help me breath better. And the next 30 minutes are spent sitting and breathing some misty medicine. At least some of the time I can actually type and post blogs.  I nebulize twice a day. And there's one drug that makes my fingers so shaky that I can't write worth a darn. I really hate that. So there goes being an artist...shake shake shake.

So having heart disease (and high blood pressure) as well as bronchiectasis, and COPD, I'm just a normal 77 year old these days. Well, I refuse to be identified by my diseases. I have them. They don't have me, I tell myself. But it does take much longer to get ready in the mornings. I seldom have breakfast before 11.

Of course part of my time is spent enjoying reading other people's blogs. Sometimes I think they all know that I just sit here in my apartment and they are my only social contact...but then I think, perhaps that's true of them as well. That's due mainly to the pandemic, of course. I'm so grateful for all their wonderful stories and photos!

Last night I headed out for a second outing for the day. I really wanted to stop at the locally owned Dairy King, and have a bit of some soft serve with something stirred into it. But when I started to turn off the road into their parking lot, I saw why the roads had been so empty. Everyone was at Dairy King! So I quickly decided to go to the grocery store and just buy some ice cream. It's the first time I'd been there since the aisles had arrows pointing you in one direction or another. And I was really pleased to see almost all the customers had on masks.

Got some needed groceries as well as my treat of ice cream. And then came home to enjoy my desert.

Earlier in the day I drove to Asheville for an appointment with the PA of the cardiologist. The nurse asked if I had a living will on file with them. I said I had one, but didn't know how to get it on file with them. She told me to ask the scheduler on the way out.  My check-up went well, and I scheduled the next things to do in September. But what was it I was supposed to ask the scheduler? I was completely blank. I went back and asked the nurse, because at least I remembered she had told me to ask someone something or another, when I was about to leave. And she remembered. The scheduler didn't know how to get it into their files. But she was smart, and asked someone in medical records. They said, just bring it in and we'll scan it into our records. I quickly wrote myself a not to that effect on the paper with my next appointment on it. I don't trust my memory at all.

Today's quote:
On each race is laid the duty to keep alight its own lamp of mind as its part in the illumination of the world. To break the lamp of any people is to deprive it of its rightful place in the world festival. -Rabindranath Tagore, poet, philosopher, author, songwriter, painter, educator, composer, Nobel laureate (7 May 1861-1941)