Day 337: on a good outcome

Himself and I did not get to the VA Medical Center when we had planned, but not for lack of trying; his mind was willing, but his body was another matter. We arrived at the Emergency Room at about 11am, two hours later than what we had aimed for.

The good news: we were there for "only" 5 1/2 hours.
The better news: we were able to make his usual Saturday evening meeting in a timely fashion.
The best news: there are no blood clots or other worriesome developments. He did not need to be admitted (which we were both anticipating), nor did he need any horrid procedures to be done upon his legs (which we were also both anticipating). He has a pharmacy appointment on Monday, wherein he will be exploring Life-Without-a-Statin options. We have already found some promising leads in that regard.

While passing time in the Emergency Room, I managed to get a small salad of lettuce, kale, cranberries, almonds, and parmesan cheese slices, which I had with some peanut butter pretzels. I got Himself some cracker "sandwiches" and granola bars, because of his lack of a colon. Then the nurse brought us some turkey sandwiches; I gave Himself my turkey and ate his and my lettuce and tomato in a quasi-veggie sandwich. We both made up for the slender pickings after the meeting, with some very tasty Greek food, even if I wound up bringing home half of my dinner in a box for tomorrow. :q

Both of us are happy that there wasn't anything terrible (not) circulating in his legs, and that he will improve as he moves the statin out of his body. We are intending to attend our Sunday support group tomorrow, but will see, depending on how Himself's leg feels.

Day 336: on some kind of day

It was definitely one of those days, when I had to keep an eye on both Himself and the Queen Mother. There were one or two occasions when I had to yell out, "Prioritize!" when both of them had simultaneous crises. The Queen Mother is relatively well and still plugging along; as for Himself, we are paying a visit to the VA Medical Center in La Jolla tomorrow, as he is not getting better. :(

Our working hypothesis right now is that his anti-cholesterol medication is causing the severe cramping in his right leg; the same leg that had the "mystery pain" a few months ago - and has the clogging in the femoral artery. It was strongly suggested to Himself that he go tomorrow so they could rule out any blood clots or anything gnarly like that, so out of an abundance of caution, that is what we'll be doing.

It hasn't been an easy day, but it hasn't been a truly bad one, either. I helped Himself do the laundry today, and I seem to have forced a detante with the ants. Hopefully the latter situation will continue to improve.

I'm hopeful that by this time tomorrow we will have an answer to what is going on with Himself's leg, and I can refocus the majority of my attention onto the Queen Mother.

Day 335: on ending with a thud

Today was mostly good, until the last half an hour or so. I had an excellent lunch with a good friend, and she reminded me of the importance of Doing for Myself. I got in some needed grocery shopping; yesterday was breakfast-oriented, today happened to be dinner-oriented. I listened in on an excellent webinar and will be working with this facilitator in the future, just not at this time. I enjoyed my dinner and dessert as well.

In the last half hour, we discovered ants swarming on the kitchen table, so now everything in the front of the house smells like vinegar. There are worse smells in the Universe, though. I dropped a lightbulb in the Queen Mother's bathroom and it shattered, so I got the broom and the dustpan and dutifully swept everything up.

Of greater concern is the fact that Himself's right leg has been bothering him pretty consistently all day. He has a call in to the Telephone Advice Nurse now, and we shall see what she says. It would not surprise me in the least if we wound up in the ER sometime in the next 24 hours, though we are hoping to avoid that scenario if at all possible. Working out tomorrow is definitely off of the table.

I choose to focus on the good stuff that happened today, and take some cleansing breaths to release the rest. Catch y'all tomorrow.

Day 334: on a stormy day

The laundry won out, for me. I got it washed and dried, but by the time all was said and done, Himself needed to go solo to his Cardiac session today, since it would have been way too late to go down and come back up in a reasonable time. For the record, though, the Queen Mother did have a later than usual dinner today.

We were out of breakfast items, so we went to Trader Joe's to grab some cereal and almond milk, and picked up a few other things while we were there. We pulled in to our covered parking spot in time to hear thunder clapping in the sky, and said sky to the southeast looked very dark indeed. Himself had taken the car through the car wash while I was at the laundromat, so you can guess what happened next - it rained.

I joke about San Diego having an "annual ten minute thunderstorm." It seems that every year, usually around late July/early August, we have a bit of thunder and lightning, it rains cats and dogs for about ten minutes, then clears up and returns to more "regular" SoCal weather. The storm was either a little late this year, or we're kicking off the 2019/2020 Rainy Season with a bang. Depends on your perspective.

Himself had some dinner while waiting out the storm, and then went on his merry way. Yes, the evening commute was a soggy mess, but he managed to avoid the worst of it. My dinner was a bit later than his, as I was in no hurry to eat.

Tomorrow I have lunch with a good friend, followed by another trip to Trader Joe's, mainly because I forgot to take inventory of what the Queen Mother was going to need for her dinners. No biggie...and I'm hearty-glad I'm able to say it's no biggie!

Day 333: on some unexpected learning

Himself and I went to the Cardiac Rehab Center today, but did not work out. Instead, we took a CPR training class. It wasn't official or certified, but I had never had a class in CPR before, and it was a good introduction to the topic. We spent about an hour and a half learning what to do in cases of cardiac arrest for adults, children, and infants. I feel more informed about CPR now and I believe I could help save a life if necessary.

I did get one point clarified: the Queen Mother has a Do Not Resuscitate order in her medical records, so if the worst happened, I would not be doing CPR on her. She had made it very clear, almost on a daily basis, that she is "ready to go" and doesn't want any medical treatment that would prolong her life. As hard as it will be, I need to respect her wishes.

Other than that, today was rather calm and normal. I appreciate that.

Tomorrow we will try again to get a workout in. Depending on when we wake up, I'm going to be doing a load of laundry as well. We'll shoot for early, but see what happens.

Day 332: on a day "free from labor"

Labor Day in the States is a holiday for many, and used to be for me (at times) when I was actually working. Being a caregiver, though, I don't have a Monday through Friday schedule anymore. In some ways, it's always a Saturday, but in other ways, it's always a Tuesday. It mainly depends on how the Queen Mother feels on a given day, and what tasks need to be done, whether in the company of Himself or just by myself.

The Alano Club that Himself belongs to had a Labor Day "picnic" today, which Himself and I attended. Despite bratwursts being the main entree, there were plenty of veggie sides, and I made a nice meal from all of the various salads. I ate very well today and didn't need a huge dinner this evening. All I had, in fact, was dessert when I got home, to give everything time to digest properly.

On my Calm app, I'm beginning (again) with the Seven Days of Calm introductory meditation series; today was the second day. I wanted the app, and am taking full advantage of it, because of the Work that I need to do. Life is good right now, better than it has been for a while, in fact; yet as I was reminded even today, my nervous system very much needs rewiring. I'm not getting triggered as often as I was, but it still doesn't take me very long at all to go from zero to Freaking Out. Using the tools on the app, and adding in techniques that work very well for me, will help me soothe what has been too often jangled, and detangle what has become a gnarled mess.

Everything comes "back online" tomorrow, so I will be a busy bee. All the better to start a practice of Greater Awareness and Serenity NOW.

Day 331: on getting calm

Today was a productive-yet-restful day for me.

I spent some good time with my Tea and Morning Pages ritual in the morning. I detangled my mind a bit by sorting through the last week's mail, reviewing my old lists, then making a new list which I can tackle starting on Tuesday, as tomorrow is a holiday for many. I cleaned off the main counter. I had my egg sandwiches for breakfast and mac-n-cheese for dinner, as I felt like I deserved some treats. After dinner, Himself and I went out for essential groceries and cat food. 

In between dinner and grocery shopping, the Heavies decided to pay an unannounced visit. Though I was tempted to skip the shopping for this evening, I made myself go, partly because the cats would not wait, partly because I wasn't sure exactly what would be open and what would be closed tomorrow. Better to be safe than sorry, and I did perk up while I was out and about. Sometimes Depression has no rhyme nor reason, but I am happy to say it has dissipated.

Another treat for myself was to download the Calm app for my phone. If you're not familiar with it, it's about meditation and (ahem) mindfulness. It's become very popular. There is a free "regular" section and a paid "premium" section, but the freebies are extensive, so I have a lot of material to work through before I would even consider unlocking the premium parts. I've used it before, but ran out of memory on my old phone, so I had to uninstall it. I very highly recommend downloading it if you're going through stressful times, or even just for the daily grind. 

There are some parties tomorrow that we are planning to attend, so I will stop here and get ready to grab forty winks.