On the Mend
This is merely an update for family and friends, and if you find it boring and tedious, I shan’t be offended if you move on to more entertaining posts. One cannot always write for his larger audience!
The Foley catheter is still in. The earliest I see the urologist is Dec 28th, but I have grown used to having it in. Not having to get up in the middle of the night to piddle is one blessing. I am still getting crystalized clots from time to time, so maybe it is for the best.
The stents were the real blessing in this ordeal. One pain that I had long believed to be GI problems turned out to be heart pain, and I am sleeping through the night pain-free for the first time in many, many years.
I am still very weak and rising for that first cup in the morning is another ordeal. I have learned to sit on the edge of the bed for a few minutes before padding into the kitchen. By the time I get a cup from the cupboard and pour it, I am weak and winded. A few steps more and I collapse at the kitchen table. I have a scale there that I need to weigh myself each morning to decide if I need to take more diuretics, and after a few sips of coffee, I weigh myself. Then it is out with the blood pressure cuff, the pulse oximeter, the thermometer, and the glucose meter. When I get all those measurements done, I have something to eat. Lately, I have been off my feed, and either a couple of pieces of toast, or sometimes a glass of V8 juice, I am ready for the meds. That is followed by nausea, and I pad down to my studio to check on the world outside my virtual and real windows. After I am up for a while, I become marginally stronger and can shower myself. Today I might try to drive for the first time in a couple of years. The battery is toast in Bucephalus, so it is boost it, and try to drive down to Walmart for a new battery. I am not sure right now if I have the confidence to do it without Snookums being along.
I am starting home physical therapy this week to try and get myself strong enough for cardiac rehab. Cardiac rehab is done at the hospital, and the parking lot sits at the bottom of a hill below the entrance. I don’t think I could make it up the hill at this point. So, it is home therapy once a week until the holidays are over, then twice a week for as long as necessary.
January, February, and March will be a round of follow-up visits and ending with a sleep study. I developed apnea in the hospital, probably due to the high-powered antibiotics and sedatives. I was afraid to sleep because I would wake up not knowing how to breathe. So they put me on a CPAP machine and that stopped that. I haven’t had that severe of an attack since I left the hospital, but I suspect that a CPAP machine is in my near future.
And that’s the health update ending in annus domini 2021 … may the upcoming year be a better one.
As one wag put it: … the moment you realize that 2022 is pronounced just like 2020 too …
Rusty's Armory 
December 20, 2021 at 10:41 am
Sending you healing hugs and stuff.
I am hoping to hit Texas this summer.
Friends in Huffman and Houston.
So behave because YOU are on the list too!
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December 20, 2021 at 12:16 pm
You’ve been having a really rough go of things, but I’m glad to hear you’re at least sleeping through the night – and pain free, at that, which is a blessing but the rest pretty much sucks. Hopefully the home PT will get you where you need to be in short order and then you can get started on the rehab. Dropping of a few hugs and some honey for the morning toast.
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December 20, 2021 at 12:28 pm
It’s a slow recovery to be sure. Have patience and listen to your body when it says it needs rest. That’s good news about the pain free nights. A better year is ahead.
😊
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December 20, 2021 at 1:00 pm
I’m glad to hear that there has been improvement. Pain free for sleep is a wonderful thing. Go easy on yourself and heal. Self care should be at the top of anyone’s list but, frequently, it isn’t.
Big hugs for you. 🤗❤
Rest & visualize healing your body.
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December 21, 2021 at 8:07 am
The only thing I am going to focus on is the title “On the Mend”. Glad to hear that is where you are. 😘
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December 22, 2021 at 6:22 am
My favorite crusty old Hebe, (after Leonard Cohen, to be perfectly honest) how *do* we bear the never-ending indignities of old age? The morning routine…argh. I feel ya. I have my own but the pain meds come first, always. Once I start feeling those, I can manage a cuppa joe, but had to start using a Keurig machine because I no longer have the stamina or breath to do coffee the way I’ve always preferred, in an old fashioned stove top percolator.
Bear it a day at a time, my old friend, and when that gets to be too much, an hour at a time, a moment…a breath.
I do stop by to read occasionally but been too fatigued to comment much anywhere, but I’ll do some catching up while here today. Happy Hannukah (belated, but what else is new) and thank God for Snookums and others who care for us in our infirmity.
You know me, I love the soft silk of the dark side, here’s my latest favorite from Leonard.
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December 22, 2021 at 8:49 am
Rusty, we’ve had a few discussions about health issues, so I won’t bore you with any advice. Just knowing that you are on the mend is a blessing. I wish you and yours the very best this holiday season. See you soon, my friend. Warm hugs!
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