Day 340: on a bit of an oopsie in the to-do's

Grocery shopping was the focus of today, hitting up Target and Trader Joe's for what we needed. This was the first trip I used a new note-taking app to make a grocery list, and it was a rousing success for me. If you take a lot of notes on your phone, and you have an Android, download Google Keep for yourself. You can color coordinate your notes too, which makes this Libra Sun + Virgo Moon very happy. 

We also went down to the dispensary to get some of Himself's CBD oil, which he uses to treat his digestive system and keep it polyp-free. What we thought was a really good price for CBD oil was a mistake on our part, though - that 20:1 ratio was actually 20 units of THC (the psychoactive stuff) to 1 unit of CBD (the medicinal stuff). If Himself had actually taken it, he would be stoned out of his mind! We will have to figure out what we can do with this, if anything, as the receipt clearly says All Sales Are Final.

There are no less than three restaurants in the same complex as the dispensary (no surprise, eh?), one of them being a decent Mexican joint. We picked up a couple of burritos while we were down there, and ate them once we were finished. Actually, I ate mine after getting the Queen Mother's dinner ready, and sat down at the table with her for the second consecutive evening. Fortunately, she didn't kvetch as much tonight as she had last night.

Tomorrow is Himself's Neurology appointment at the VA Medical Center, where we intend to discuss his leg issues and see if we can get a fresh perspective. The plan right now is to revisit the dispensary after that and see if we can't bend the rules a bit, as this is for medicinal purposes...though I'm not holding my breath. As it's a late afternoon appointment, I will be preparing the Queen Mother's dinner before we go. She is making noises about taking a shower tomorrow, so I think we'll be able to pencil that in earlier in the day.

I find myself juggling the care of two once more, but I'm in a place of acceptance right now. I suspect more waves of Anger and Resentment will arise and surge through me in the future, but if I can ride them out and not be drowned in them, that will be progress. :)

Day 339: on a blessedly easier day

It was with a sense of relief that I was able to engage in my Tea and Morning Pages ritual to start off the day, though I only wrote one page in total before the words just stopped flowing out and refused to start again. Still, that one page helped to shift a lot around, judging by how the rest of the day actually flowed.

I went back to my favorite place of chaos, the kitchen. Between three adults and two cats, it can get messy in quite a hurry. Working by degrees, with zero pressure to get anything done, I managed to do quite a bit, and the kitchen looks light years better than it did at the start of the day. The dishwasher is humming as it washes the dirty dishes. 

Dinner this evening was leftover spanikopita and rice pilaf, to which I added some more rice, and a salad. Everything seemed to taste a little better than it did Saturday night, as the ingredients had a chance to blend flavors while in the fridge. I capped it off with a couple of chocolate chip cookies, also leftovers. 

My "mistake" was eating at the dining room table, because I got an earful from the Queen Mother. With a captive audience, she unloaded everything that was on her mind before she finally returned to her current novel she was reading and settled back in to that. I treated myself to some music from the Calm app while she was watching the news. 

Still playing it by ear, or in our case, how Himself's leg feels. He talked with one of the VA pharmacists on the phone, and is now taking a two week "vacation" from statins. Once that two weeks is up, he will be taking a non-statin medication and will be on it for a week before the next phone consultation. His leg is getting better by degrees, but it's a "painfully" slow process, pun fully intended.

Need to get in some grocery shopping tomorrow; otherwise, the day is wide open.

Day 338: on another wild finish

Today started out well enough, as Himself and I managed to make it to our Sunday Support group, and had some good sharing. For once, we didn't have to stop for groceries on our way home. I had a "comfort" dinner of mac-n-cheese with my usual salad this evening, as the last few days had been a bit hairy, with Himself's leg issues. His leg IS hurting a bit less than it was yesterday, which was a bit less than the day before, so it looks like the statin was indeed the culprit.

Then I discovered the Queen Mother's toilet had overflowed without my knowledge, because much of her bathroom floor was wet. (I grabbed some already dirty towels to soak the water up.) Then Himself came home and the car alarm kept going off - because he had forgotten to turn off the driver side interior light before he had gotten out of the car. (Sometimes the car is smarter than we are!) Then I had to make sure Inkblot hadn't escaped out the back door while we were trying to figure out what was up with the car (he had not). Then Himself needed a bit of a leg massage. Then the Queen Mother wanted her nighty ice cream.

Lots of little things added up to a bundle of frayed nerves and I needed to do one of my Three Minute Breathing exercises and be in the Calm and Quiet before I felt like I could post this entry and move on. Inkblot did his part to help his mom calm down by asking for some head scritches, which I happily gave him. He even walked over to sit upon Himself for some head scritches, but Daddy doesn't do as well as Mommy does. ;) 

Once again, I acknowledge that MUCH healing and realignment need to be done if I am to "function" again.

The week to come might or might not be busy, depending on how Himself's leg is doing. We shall see...

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!