This and that....

 

I hope this doesn't offend anyone. But I figure by now, anyone reading my blog knows I'm not a good Christian, nor anything particularly.

And then there's a new Salvador Dali' that I hadn't seen before.

Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee Around a Pomegranate a Second Before Waking, 1944

New name of Clingmans Dome is Kuwohi. Parking area at (then) Clingmans Dome in Sevier County in 1939.

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Personal note 11.15.24:

I haven't been out of the apartment for 4 days. Felt really achy after Wed. exercise, but picked up some salad and some hot "Chinese type food" at Ingles (grocery). They massacred the veggies with total salty soy sauce. I ate half my salad and some of the chicken.

The next day I was supposed to meet friends for coffee and snacks at one of our favorite restaurants. But I begged off with my achy body, took some Tylenol, and went back to bed. Was all this because I over-did it on exercises? Then dinnertime and I started feeling chills. Within 2 hours my temp had shot up to 101.8. I took the Tylenol (only second dose). I should have done the nebulizer, though at that point I just wanted to die. A long long night, and the fever did go down by dawn to 99. My regular temp is 97.

Some more bed time on through the night and morning of Saturday. I didn't want to get up. I'd roll over, cough a bit, and keep my eyes closed, and hope I could fall asleep again. There is the bliss of nothingness in sleep. I guess I wanted that. Did I mention that all day Friday, off and on, I'd take a breath and suddenly feel a sharp pain in my back under my left scapula. It would happen without warning and I got really scared, is this my heart? No, it only happens when breathing in. I did try to breathe into other parts of my lungs as much as possible. But I had to cry out the pain was so severe when it happened. Thank heavens it stopped during my hiding from life sleep before Saturday.

I've had this "intermittent" fever, which has no name before. I'm determined to get back on my feet. So tonight I'm aiming to sleep no more than 10 hours. I've got some other goals too, but don't want to tell you in case I chicken out and don't do them.

Next day: Sunday I woke up and felt myself again. No pains anywhere! There had finally been night sweats. That's how I know this bout is really over. 

Heavy frost outside on the car and the plants I left out. I'm sorry to say, I really had to let them go. I just have too many to keep inside all winter. 

So I'm trying to keep track to see if there's any causal factor to this recurring illness. I last had it just before the first storm, because I remember not doing dishes while I was sick, and then no electricity or water and the storms had taken care of my doing them at all. So I'd say maybe Sept. 22 or so, and Helene hit Sept. 27 and I was out of town "evacuated" for 16 days.

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Today's quote:

On writing, The first, of course, is to read. It’s surprising how many people think they want to be writers but they don’t really like to read books… The second is to write, every day, whether you like it or not. Screw inspiration. Octavia E. Butler

A personal note

 Well, since last Thursday's lunch out, myself and one of my friends have come down with a cold or something. Mine didn't start till Sat. and as usual goes right to my chest, so I've been doing nebulizer often to clear things out...saline solution does draw out mucous for me.

Of course 2 COVID tests, day apart, all negative.

And so I've canceled going to the Senior Center this week, till I feel better. And that's ok, cause I didn't have anything really eventful happening this last full week of January. Our temperatures are rising a bit today.

I sometimes have splitting headaches, and some woke me in the night. Speaking of temperatures, I sometimes have a low grade one (100.1 F). So I took my standard Tylenol. I've certainly had some doozies of nightmares. 

One morning I woke up so jealous of a relative, that I could feel my blood pressure sky-rocketing. Whew. Loving someone doesn't give me the right to own that person...as I've always known. But the feeling of having been purposely hurt by them, whew! That was sure a zinger of a feeling! I have been very surprised when people I love can turn mean. It certainly changes my opinion of them.

So along with diminishing expectations on others, while still loving them a lot, I'm checking if I would feel terrible hurt if they had more interest in another. Mostly no. Clear on that in real life. But also, I've sure lived that scenario before. Please never again. You know about Karma and Darma, don't you? Well, maybe I can't keep them straight.

Today's dream included some tiny fairies, who I asked to stick around while I woke up and got out of bed. I don't think that worked.

When the fevers are gone, my dreams will be the usual silly ones.

Today's quote:

When dealing with negative people, we can choose not to respond to their behavior and allow our positive behavior to be an example.

June sick

 Yesterday I finally gave in, took my temperature when I'd just risen, and it was 100 F. That's a bit high for me, so when the Doc's office opened I called and said cough, runny nose, fever...and I had taken 2 home Covid tests which were negative. With my chronic lung condition, I'd had all kinds of interesting sounds during the night, and I was hoping that my lungs wouldn't clear up the minute I got out to the Doc. He seldom has heard some of the noises they make once I come into his air conditioned exam room.

My Doc has a routine set up so sick covid-possible patients just stay in their car, and a nurse comes out and does a swab for both flu and covid test, and finds out what the matter is.

My nurse was a bit amazed when I had 106 temp. Me too. She asked did I have the heater on in the car. I said no, the AC was on. She took it again and came up with 104. Then I realized I'd sat in a car that had been in the sun by then (12:10) and had only driven it 2 blocks to the Doc's office. So it's quite possible I was having my body temp raised by sitting on a warm seat. But those rosy cheeks are a sure sign that I'm sick.

By the time my Dr. came out to listen to my lungs, he said they sounded a bit cruddy, or something more medical sounding. I got an antibiotic and drove around a bit till the prescription was ready to be picked up at the CVS drive-through.

I then went home and slept the afternoon away, after taking some Tylenol. I woke up later on, had some Tapioca Pudding for lunch, watched some TV, had left-overs for dinner, and then felt ready for early bedtime.

I'm so glad not to be fighting this bug without the drugs. I just hope the antibiotics keep working for me, as I've heard eventually they may not. We shall see if I live that long. Hope not, actually!

Today's quote:

When you let go of trying to get more of what you don’t really need, it frees up oceans of energy to make a difference with what you have.

LYNNE TWIST

Beauty is all around us

A promise of things to come...

And the wrapping continues...but Mon. morning I took all the little pieces to UPS, where they will finish putting heavy duty wraps on the pieces of pottery that my friend Cathy Babula made. I should have taken some photos of it before I started with all the bubble wrap and tape. Then I put prettty Chrismas wrapping paper on them...and will leave the final wrap for the UPS guys.

Shades of red...a whole tomato cut into bite size chunks, sprinkled with sea salt...on a poppy designed plate.

A friend made a wonderful minestrone which I loved eating. She sent me the recipe. Then we talked on the phone and she told me another thing that she kind of added. It was so good, and I want to make some too!
 

Tues was a run around day. I started out early to get some groceries, and to avoid as many people as possible. Before I got in my car, the maintenance man said I should have my right front tire looked at, as it was low again. I would have postponed it, but he said if you go fast and it heats up, it could explode.

So I spent the next hour having the tire looked at by the Black Mountain Tire guys...on the side sort of. He couldn't find a leak, so he took the whole thing off and went somewhere and ground off the rust, which he thought made it leak. And then when I asked him what I owed him he said what he'd done...but he wasn't going to write up a ticket. So I gave him $10. I hope that was enough.

It was most of the cash in my wallet, and I felt funny pulling out 3 more dollars.

Anyway, off I went to see if my favorite frozen dinners had been restocked since last week, when they were almost all gone. Nope...so I bought 2 of the vegetarian meals by Amy. They are pricey, but when I'm sick I don't want to dirty pans, then have to wash them. To be honest, they are already dirty, watiting till I feel well enough to stand in the kitchen for 20 minutes.

It wasn't a crowded store, but several young children (who don't require masks) were skipping around everywhere. I kept avoiding them. I wondered if school is out for the holidays already.

Brought the groceries home, and then loaded up one bag of non-perishibles, and dropped it off at church to be donated to the local mission which has free groceries for those in need. It feels good to have enough to share.

I then waited till time to get to my doctor appointment, by eating some lunch and reading a book from the library. Got to the doctor's office early, sat far apart from others, all of us wearing masks. But some kind of mix up meant a guy who had just been worked into the schedule got in ahead of me, so after about an hour, I finally was shown to the first room, and then a few minutes later to another one. My doctor said having a recurrent fever and cough might well be COVID. He asked if I wanted to take part in a research study using a 15 minute test. He also would send a test for flu and another one for COVID to a lab. The 15 minutes went by fast, because the nurse ended up having to repeat one of the tests 3 times. Why? She said she dropped it on the floor twice. She apologized and said she was having a bad day.

I apparently wasn't. My test was negative, for the 4th test since May.  So my doctor put me on antibiotics, and some steroids for a short time. He's figuring it's bronchitis. I know there wasn't much else he could do...so will hope this knocks this bug right out.

Thanks for reading through today's adventures. I came home and had soup for dinner.

Finishing a new book

 

I enjoyed this, as usual with one of my favorite authors. There was the usual action of murder mysteries...and I enjoyed that this one was set in Paris. Obviously Louise Penny had been there and knew a lot about the places to enjoy and eat wonderful Parisian food! And I liked the ending, which was more than just a feel-good resolution to the crimes.

Since I've been sick with whatever, a couple of days ago I slept most of the day. Occasionally I'd wake up and take care of bodily necessities. I was surprised I could still eat regular meals. But my temperature continued to be in the "above normal" range. And I had to cancel all my plans (which were really minimal.) It was strange to wake up every couple of hours and see how the sun had passed across the sky. I missed that it had been a really nice day outside.

How did I catch whatever this bug is? Good question...it is possible wearing the same paper masks has allowed any tiny little germs to transfer from the outside of one, to the inside of the next, as they are stacked. Oh my. Reusing paper masks that are hung on a doorknob seemed like a good idea. Now I'm going to buy a brand new box of them!

I picked up my prescriptions at the drive through Saturday. And they were great at having put aside my box of masks. At least I had a 25% coupon off the price. The sales clerk apologized that they cost so much. But continuing to have the fever which is connected to my cough, and lots of drippy nose symptoms has washed me out for the 3rd time in as many months. I was glad when I walked in from the car that I wasn't as exhausted as I had been walking back from the mail box yesterday. Seriously, I measure my strength that way!

Waiting for test results

Fever for two days.
Had to drop out of Ornish until I get a negative test result.

Yesterday I dragged my feverish self to two sites doing Covid-19 tests, in your car. But they both were doing it only by appointment. Fortunately the second one said I needed to get tested, and if I could wait around a while, they would be glad to give me the test.

That was our new urgent care center right here in Black Mountain. I gave them my insurance information, so they said I was now in their system.

I watched the first 15 cars as they each got their tests. I had been asked to pull over to the side until there was a lull. And it finally happened.

They said it would be 2-6 days for results. They would text me if it was negative. They would call if it was positive. There's nothing available in writing, which I need to have in order to return to the Ornish Cardiac Rehabilitation program.  I do hope it's negative, and then I'll call the Urgent Care Clinic and ask how to get it in writing.

In the mean time, I've listened to a digital book checked out from the library. I haven't felt like cooking or cleaning up the kitchen, but was glad I stashed some vegetarian soup in the freezer back when we first started isolating.  It's pretty good. I haven't done the Ornish Program tracking, because I haven't really eaten much at all, nor exercised. I have stayed happily in bed, alternating between taking my temperature and taking Tylenol. It's never been very high, so I'm thinking this is just another flu. But how I caught it is kind of awkward. I've worn my mask everywhere.

Perhaps from touching things in the pharmacy or the grocery store...and then forgetting to sanitize my hands when I got home. Oh well. I'm sick. I'm not a detective. I am tired. And yesterday I slept all afternoon after not sleeping well the prior night. Last night was much better, so I haven't slept at all today. So I'm saying goodnight, and hoping tomorrow will bring good news.

Stay safe y'all!

Post Script:
At around 8:15 this morning I got the text that said my test results were negative for Covid-19. What a relief. I went right back to sleep. I still feel about 50% of my regular self. Fever is down. I'm getting better from whatever it was. Yay!

Down-time gets filled in with...

illness.
It doesn't seem fair.

I had a week with very little planned.

Then Monday while waiting for the free veggies (thanks Bounty and Soul) to be unloaded a bit late, I started losing my voice. I attributed it to some of the moldy veggies...I saw them wipe blue stuff off the lemons. Any chemicals in the air can do the "laryngitis" thing to my throat.

By the time I picked up some tomatoes, some potatoes, and a loaf of pretty stale Ciabatta bread, and the Food Connection gave me a boxed dinner of roast beef and brownies, I was coughing again. That was a nice start of a meal which I definitely stretched with the new bread, saving half the beef for another meal.

So I started taking the antibiotics which my Dr. had given me in case I got sick while I had been traveling in the fall. And I started taking pro-biotics to counteract one of the worst side effects (for me) of diarrhea from the antibiotics.

So Thurs. I had a physical therapy appointment, and I wore a little face mask to not share my germs with anyone. The physical therapist took me seriously, put his hand on my forehead before he would even see me, and wouldn't touch me but just gave me directions, and as soon as I left, he was spraying his table with whatever cleanser he uses.

So far I haven't had any fever. But my sinuses have definitely improved, so I may have knocked out a sinus infection (which I'm prone to getting.)

I'm still coughing, and nose still runs more than usual. But I'm not tired enough to nap any more, nor did I ever have muscle or joint pains. So with lack of fever and those flu like symptoms, I'm pretty sure it's just a cold. I don't get them very often.

But when I had such a low scheduled week, I left myself open for getting sick and needing to stay away from people. However, when my friend invited me for dinner on Thur.s night, I certainly went, and enjoyed not wearing a mask. But I didn't have much appetite, though the fare was delicious. I just brought about half of it home in a box.

Next week I've got a lot to do, so I'm getting better!

Just when you think it's not going to get any worse...

Well, life does have this habit of making something else happen when you're just hanging on by your fingers.  So while trying to figure out if I'm not as depressed as I seem to be, and while slowly packing and wrapping the presents...I get a head cold.

Nope, that's not the worst thing in the world.  Finishing the presents before New Years might have been my goal.  But gee, I slept 3 hours yesterday afternoon, and I'm so glad I did, because my nose didn't run while I was using the C-Pap.  It means I have to breathe through my nose, and thankfully it kind of dries stuff out enough that I was able to snooze.

So when I woke up I felt like some Chinese food, and got on real shoes (not slippers, which my friend Cathy gave me for Christmas!) and with weather in high 50s, drove down to our only Chinese place.  Don't know what happened to all the others, but this one is good...got my hot and sour soup, egg roll and sweet and sour chicken...and will have left overs the next day.

Deep breath.  Cough a bit.  Sit and stretch.  Walk around. Tea is good! Lots of liquids!  I'm grateful for what I've got!

Medical notes

I won't give you the boring details.  I get fevers and chills sometimes (for the last 5 days) and when I don't have them, I feel ok.

Today I finally went to Dr.'s office, got a shot of antibiotic, gave various fluid samples for lab work, and am about to go to X-ray center to take pics of my lungs.  The Dr. couldn't get my temp below fever level, and will be seeing me tomorrow with results of all this testing.

In the meantime, I'm still having no appetite, so am losing some weight that I've not needed for some time.

Since I still have the fever, I'm glad Tina is going to drive me down the interstate.  I seem to be able to do simple things, just one at a time, and then stop to see what I should be doing next.

So now to get shoes on, pick up phone and put it in purse, then go out the door.
Simple things.

Staying out of bed

Dear Diary:
There have been times in my life that my goal for the day is to stay in bed as much as possible.
When I was so worn out from work that my body ached, and I wanted nothing more than to sleep, perhaps to read a good book, even to watch TV in bed, weekend days were so precious for that.

Then there were days on end when I was depressed and wanted to avoid the life I was leading, or not leading but somehow surviving.

I won't even mention the times of my life where bed meant honeymoon.  Smiling memories of those times.

Today I'm setting a different intention.  To stay out of bed more than I'm in it.  For the past couple of weeks I've not exactly been physically active.  You might say my biggest activity was punching keys on the computer.  I could sit here for about 6-8 hours, with breaks but no coughing, and then try to lie down.  That would bring about awful coughing.  So I would sometimes go back to the computer and breathe and work on something for another hour, till I thought I was tired enough to prop myself up and try sleep again.

Today I woke up feeling rested.  I don't know what I did differently last night, but I didn't toss and turn with coughs, and today the sun is shining and I went for a walk around the lake.  I haven't been in months.  My physical activities have been severly limited and this was the first day I thought I might make it around.  About a week ago I got as far as a third of the way around and came right back, hacking away.

Today I stopped a few times to take pictures of ducks and people, but kept on trucking.  The gravel walkway was somewhat muddy from rain and then snow...but I slogged through.

I had a loss this week, of a visit with my Florida family...and my investment in airfare.  I was to fly out on Tues night with stormy weather, and the flight was delayed.  I was too sick to wait through the various delays, and asked a friend to bring me home.  I was actually in bed again when the flight that had been scheduled for 8:25 pm took off at 1:30 am.  I had already paid for the tickets in August, and was looking forward to being with my eldest son and his family for a few days...but it was not to happen.   I asked him to call me and tell me about his feast for Thanksgiving.

The medications to stop coughing felt like they befuddled my mind.  And I may not have had a fever, but I've been on antibiotics to keep from getting an infection, supposedly.  I still am taking them, but so far today haven't taken any Musinex or Tussin or narcotic laced cough syrup.  I have coughed a few times, and haven't experienced the suffocating feeling when coughing just doesn't let me get air.  What a relief.

It's amazing how many things I might do today, while being out and about in my home.  There are lots of ideas floating around in my head.  Activities!

Get sick, still do a lot

From activist movie last night which hadn't been scheduled, to catching a dratted cold and barely sleeping last night...and to a dental appointment squeezed into today's already over-scheduled events...here I yam.

The movie was at Warren Wilson college, and my friend Sarah asked me to go with her.  Partly because she has lost the sight in one eye and can't drive at night.  Partly because she's an activist and Eco-Chaplin, and I support her efforts. 

The movie was Bidder 70 (http://www.bidder70film.com/) - a movie about Peaceful Uprising and Tim DeCristopher and his successful direct action which saved thousands of acres of public BLM land from oil and gas drilling by bidding at a public auction in 2008. (http://www.peacefuluprising.org/) Tim was just released after spending two years in federal prison.  Then when I got home I watched Tim give a live streaming meeting with those who had questions for him.  The movie was very well done, including interview with Robert Redford.  I hope to have my Unitarian Universalist friends see it who are interested in social action.  There were lots of UU's in Salt Lake City who were featured in the movie, as well as the minister talking about Thoreau going to jail.

Rose that I planted has buds

 

My visit to the dentist was a last minute appointment to try to get a filling that fell out taken care of.  When I realized I couldn't breathe through my nose, I tired cancelling it.  There's nothing more fun that whoofing through your mouth while the dentist probes, I think.  But they talked me into keeping the appointment when I called to try to postpone it.  It's just a short appointment apparently, so the filling will probably not be fixed today.

I've a meeting with the MudBuddies at noon at a local restaurant.  That should be fun...then dash to dentist.  I may have a few hours/minutes before I meet Teresa for a fun date...for coffee at the Dripolater.  She works all the time, raises a family as well as has a great hubby, but sometimes likes to get away from it all...and I get to be part of that "play date."

At least the evening is free, so I can put my feet up, and tend my sore nose.  I'm waiting to get the movie "Lincoln" from Netflix, which will probably be tomorrow.  I'll probably share it with some friends.

So I'm breathing through my mouth today.  I still have lots of plants that ask for transplanting...soon, grasshopper, soon.  (Yes I've heard that phrase on another blog...and like it)