Simple life

 I sit on the edge of my bed With the window open fully to let in fresh, cool air, and let out the nebulized fumes. I now have four different chemicals that I breathe each morning and evening. Fortunately, I can read things on the iPad while I’m doing the breathing, which of course includes coughing. That’s the whole point to clear out the mucus and get my lungs to function better. 

By the time I finish The fourth chemical, my head is spinning, and I do not dare try to move around beyond shifting slowly One direction to another – no way will I stand for a few more minutes! 

 I received a spam phone call from someplace in Texas, which I answered and don’t say anything. There is dead silence and I figure only a machine is on the other end. I hang up. Isn’t it strange to say hang up and we no longer Have a receiver to put into a cradle on a phone.

Yes dictating on iPad means strange capitalizations...you should see some of the words I deleted! nebulize does get into some interesting combination! Nebula Eyes!

Oh so slowly my purple orchid is opening...it wasn't fertilized this summer, and the blooms are tiny.

A nurse from the pulmonologist's office called last afternoon. She was answering a message I'd sent about a week or so ago, asking what the results were from the last sputum sample in July. They never got that one  examined I guess.

 But I told her about being hospitalized 2 weeks ago and being discharged 10 days ago from pneumonia. And I told her about the 2 new drugs added to the nebulizer, by one of their doctors.  They are the same ones that were in an inhaler which never seemed to work for me. None of the hospital records were available to her, but I asked about the dizziness. She was great in telling me to just use enough that I feel I can breathe better, not till I'm dizzy.

She tried to get me scheduled before my regular appointment in November, but there were no openings. So I'll work with my general practitioner, with whom I have an appointment next week. And I'll talk by phone with my care coordinator tomorrow. I just hope I feel better soon. Slowly I'm able to walk around a bit more each day! 

I cancelled the Meals on Wheels because they tried to deliver yesterday when my friends had taken me out. The MOW people contacted my emergency contact that I wasn't home. I'd never been told that I had to let them know if I was going out. 

So I'm going back to the Council on Aging lunches at the senior center,  which actually are much better (in my opinion!) I do appreciate that MOW is offering a great service to those folks who are home-bound. I'm not quite in that category (yet.)

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Every positive thought we pass between us makes room for more light.

JOHN LEWIS

Summer winding down

The pool officially closes on Labor Day. But since most kids start school this week, it has limited hours.
 

What a difference from the crowds in June and July!  This last week has also been quite cool, with mid-70s F in the day and into the 50s at night. I keep the living room windows open, but the bedroom window is just cracked a bit so I don't have to get the winter blanket out yet. I'm already under a sheet , a blanket and a bedspread (a light-weight quilt).

This is the nebulizer, which lets me breath saline solution, and I pretend I'm on a beach breathing the salty air there. It helps my cough be productive.  Then I also inhale Albuterol, which helps my lungs somehow.  And if I'm a very good girl, I'll sit and vibrate with the vest for 15 min. All in all, I have to set aside about 20 min. for each procedure, with the set-up and then washing the nebulizing equipment.

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From last week's DNC...a bit on climate change, thank you very much, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland!

Today's quote:

John Locke said, "Reading furnishes the mind only with materials of knowledge; it is thinking that makes what we read ours."

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)

Facebook needs my help

First, we know there are so many other responses needed than those "like, love..." etc.
And then just a few minutes ago, FB said "There are no more new posts to show you now."
WHAT?
FB ran out of posts?
OK, they are in real trouble.

Here I sit doing my breathing treatment, 20 min. morning and evening on the nebulizer.  And I entertain myself with FB, or I used to.

Any of my "friends on FB" know I share, whenever I read something pretty or eye catching or just well put.  I've stopped doing cats (too painful with my recent loss.)  But I've picked up some new venues to follow.

So out of my 26 allowed contacts on their algorithm, how could they have run out?

I will go check my blog friends, they can be counted on at least.

Today's quote:
“A Witch ought never to be frightened in the darkest forest because she should be sure in her soul that the most terrifying thing in the forest was her.”  Hecatedemeter