Here We Go Again...

...back to the hospital. This time, Terry is anemic and short of breath. He has been scanned and Dopplered and x-rayed all up and down his torso. So far it seems he is losing blood somewhere in the gastrointestinal tract, but they haven't been able to pin it down yet. Seems a colonoscopy is needed, but his blood count is too low for that at this point, so they must build up his blood.

Meanwhile, it seems one lung has some "effusion," which they haven't gotten a clear picture of yet, to see whether it's fluid inside or outside the lung, or if the lung is collapsed or what. Late this evening he had a CT scan so they can see a better picture.


He is resting comfortably for the moment, but he looks very pitiful when I leave at night and greets me eagerly when I return in the morning. I just sit by him all day, and we don't even talk a lot, but it seems to make him feel better to have me around. I have learned to keep a tablet handy to write down all the names of the different doctors, tests and treatments, and diagnoses. Of course I want to be there with him all day, but I must admit I am ready to come home by 8 o'clock in the evening so I can unwind and clean up and then sleep in my own bed. I try to get up early enough in the morning to go to Curves before the hospital, too, so I don't get out of the habit. I must be crazy exercising at 7 A.M! I would really rather sleep, but I'm trying to be good.

I am optimistic that within a few days one or two of the 10 doctors we've seen will be able to come up with a diagnosis for the lung problem and the anemia. Then we can proceed to fix everything and hope that Terry can finally put this miserable 6 months behind him. He has had a very rough road to travel, and I'. afraid I haven't always felt as sympathetic as I could have when he complained. But he has kind of been like the boy who cried wolf, and with all his complaints, I wasn't sure what were legitimate ones. Of course, due to the anemia, they were probably all legitimate! Glad I bit my tongue and didn't harass him when I wanted to! :) Life is good (I think...).

Lazy

Lazy. That's just how I feel today. After about 10 days of having somewhere to go and something to do, I have finally arranged a day where I can stay home. Usually I like going places and doing things, but once in a while a day at home is nice.

The problem with that is that, when I'm home all day, I feel as if I should be doing something productive, even if it only takes an hour or so. About the only day I don't feel that way is Sunday. When I retired, I was afraid I would fall into a pattern of doing nothing productive all the time, so I told myself that I would spend at least an hour a day when I was at home doing something in the way of cleaning or laundry or something like that. Of course, I actually should spend a lot more time than that, but I am not a big fan of cleaning, so I figure if I can devote at least an hour a day to it, I'm doing well.

Well, I got up late this morning because I just kept turning the snooze on and finally just turned it off. I woke up a half hour later. I just didn't seem to have any energy and didn't feel like doing anything except settling in my chair with a good book. However, I had told myself yesterday that I would clean my kitchen surfaces. I wrestled with this in my head, and I finally decided I must get up and do what I'd said I would. I spent an hour in the kitchen polishing and scrubbing the appliances and countertops. Aren't I virtuous?

So now I feel I can relax and read the rest of the afternoon. I haven't had enough time to read this week, and I am really looking forward to maybe finishing the book, "Nineteen Minutes," by Jodi Picoult. Of course, this will depend on my better half sleeping the afternoon away, or he will talk and talk and I won't finish it after all. We'll see.

Meanwhile, here is a picture of my latest Monday effort. It's taken from one of Alissa's photos.

edited to add: I finished the book by 5 o'clock. Hooray! I'm ready to rejoin the race again...

P.S.

The furnace is fixed! The house is warm. I worried for nothing...

Wouldn't You Know It!

After two weeks of absolutely gorgeous weather--unseasonably warm and sunny--we are now suffering through an unseasonable cold snap, and right at Easter, too, when you want pretty weather to show off your finery. We are due to have high temperatures in the 30's and lows in the low 20's , which is 20-30 degrees lower than average for this time of year. I guess you could say we were due for it, but that doesn't make it any more pleasant to bear. After hauling out the lightweight clothes, we now find ourselves in sweaters and winter jackets. That's a bummer, but it's not the worst of it. This is where Murphy's Law comes in...

When it got cold enough for the furnace to kick on Wednesday morning, it didn't. I wasn't home, and Terry called me at Dad's to let me know it wasn't working. I don't know how I was supposed to do anything about it at that point, so he was going to check it out and call for a repair if needed. When I left Dad's an hour or so later, I called him back to find it was running, but making an increasingly loud noise. We had heard this noise before the warm weather came, but we were hoping to make it through the season before doing anything about it. Unfortunately, the furnace only worked on Wednesday. On Thursday morning, at about 6:00, it came on and immediately stopped. Apparently the blower quit functioning. Terry called the repairman, and he came out yesterday afternoon. Yes, the fan was bad, so he relayed the information to his office lady, who called to see about replacing it. She was very prompt to call us back to tell us that we must replace not just the fan, but the whole blower assembly, at a cost of $583 plus labor. What can you do but agree? However, she had to order the part, and she wasn't sure it would be in before today, Friday. If it comes in, the repairman will come back today and install it. Otherwise, you guessed it. We will be without a furnace on the coldest weekend of the spring.

It's fine and warm in our kitchen and family room. We have a gas blower and a space heater that keep the area comfortable. It's not even too bad yet in the nether regions of the house. We slept quite comfortably last night under a few blankets and a bedspread. However, the kids are scheduled to come and stay. I'm afraid it won't be warm enough for them. If they think it's too cold, we can let them stay with Doug and Kellie or maybe get them a motel room, but I hope we can get the furnace fixed before they get here and have to make a decision.

I guess Alissa's bad financial luck was contagious. We were just congratulating ourselves that the insurance company was going to pay $772 of an ambulance bill from when Terry was recuperating, so we were saving money. I guess it burned a hole in our pocket (or our furnace fan), so we now have somewhere to spend it. I am grateful that we have it to spend. Life is good...Happy Easter to everyone!