Random things this morning

1. When you forget to take the trash bins to the kerb the night before, and the city is starting early due to the heat, it behoves you to get up at 5:00 AM to take the trash out and roll all three (trash, recycling, and yard waste, when in Lexington, have names, in order: Herbie, Rosiek and Lenny (for Lend a Hand). This is a somewhat perilous process in the dark, without anyone's knowledge, as you are also a klutz and liable to fall. But all went well. Still, at that point, you might as well stay up.
2. I have very short hair, but I have kept all my hair ties because they are extremely useful. I mainly use them to wrangle charging cords.  However, just now, I dealt with a sagging lumbar pillow that I have to adjust every single time I sit in the chair because the strap is stretched out by pulling it back and securing it with a hair tie. We'll see how it goes, but for now, it's at the perfect height for my back.
3. So far, I have used my extra time filing papers, mainly all the information the government sends me regarding my benefits. I know they're mostly duplicates of the notices they put on the portal, but still, some part of me thinks I should keep them. I also just had to change an asthma preventative inhaler that I've taken nightly for at least a decade (Breo Ellipta) because it's not covered by Medicaid. They cover Advair Diskus. Hopefully it will work as well. The pharmacist who works with my doctor helpfully advised me that the dosing is twice a day, though, so that was nice.  I spent 29 years with the same commercial medical insurance (UnitedHealthcare) when I was at Shriners. I knew my benefits intimately, and it was extremely good insurance: $150 deductible/$1500 out-of-pocket. Even though it was an HMO, it didn't require referrals as long as someone was in-network, and I never had issues with anyone being out-of-network in all that time. Since I've left, I've been covered by two Medicaid managed care organisations (Aetna Better Health of Kentucky and UnitedHealthcare Community Plan of Kentucky), both of which use MedImpact for medications (all of them do, at least for our state) and then for two months I was on a assisted qualified health plan from Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield where the state paid about $900 and I paid $500 for a $400-$500 deductible plan (medicine did not count like it did for my commercial plan, so I never hit it like I thought I would, or I would have gone for something cheaper, although medications were probably cheaper, and the first month of the doctors' visits were cheaper; the second month everything went up, including the premium, due to me pulling some retirement income out--to pay for the premiums and medical bills. It's been very hard to navigate all the changes. I'm highly literate, great with technology, and having been to university, an expert at red tape and bureaucracy (I always said I majored in red tape and minored in line waiting at the University of Kentucky); I  can't imagine how difficult it would be for someone without those advantages.
4. Today's agenda is fairly simple:
1. Work on as many chapters as I can, proofreading a talking book for the Kentucky Talking Book Library. I am woefully behind. I got chapter 3 done yesterday, which I was sent in April.  I got the whole book yesterday...fifteen chapters to go.  Life just has gotten in the way, and I should just buckle down now and get as much as I can get done while I'm off.
2. We need to put a large shop fan together to get some air moving in the house. It's a little oppressive out there, where the central heating went out last year. I am the only one with air conditioning in my room, and there have been other barriers to putting it in the rest of the house, so we've been relying on different types of fans and using my room as a cooling area for everyone occasionally.
3. I need to pick up some medicine at the UK pharmacy today.
4. My roommate's going over to friends' tonight, so it'll give me some chance to work on the book more. It's a true-crime murder mystery from the 1890s in northern Kentucky, so it's been pretty interesting, both from an historical and story point of view. 

Those are about all I can think of for now. That's a little rambling, I know. I'm just waking up, with no caffeine (I only drink soda on weekends, and I'm not a fan of coffee or tea; what can I say? It's terrible, I'm such an Anglophile and I hate tea.)

I've been having enough pain to have trouble sleeping lately, so

I went back on the Journavx [suzetrigine], which is neither a traditional pain medicine (i.e. opioid) nor an NSAID, so it avoids a lot of the issues with either of those. It's a sodium channel blocker. The only issue I'm having is, like my thyroid medicine, you take it on an empty stomach and can't eat for an hour afterwards, so since I took it at midnight last night, and you take it every 12 hours, it runs right into lunchtime. So timing can be tricky, especially as we eat late, and so if I take it anytime in the morning, we run into the problem of dinner. But it's workable. It's brand new, apparently. But it really helped last night and today. I wasn't sure about right after the surgery because I had that nerve block on anyway.

[UPDATE: I am totally wrong about how to take this. The food matters for the first dose only. It should be taken one hour before eating and at least two hours after eating, then 12 hours after the first dose. But the subsequent doses can be taken with or without food. Well, that makes my life much easier.]

Up

at 5:30 am just as my roommate went to bed. Neither of us has the best sleeping ability on a good day, both of us deal with insomnia. My problem, I think, is while I went to bed fairly early, i had quite a bit of pain and had trouble sleeping, so I finally broke down and took some medicine, which messes with my sleep cycle, melatonin or not. Besides, I'm used to getting up between 5:30-6:30 for work still.

So here I am, my light alarm clock just coming on. I should probably get on the bike. But no, that is not happening this early.

Before I went to bed, I made my first actual to-do list since my surgery. It goes something like this:

• do morning PT exercises
• brush teeth/clean up
• get dressed
• take morning meds
• do internet jigsaw puzzle #1 in morning [https://www.jigsawexplorer.com/]
• listen to music
• return a text from a friend in Cicero, Illinois
• ride ROMTech bike #1 (8:00 am)
• read from book about public libraries
• get my friend to take my hamper of dirty clothes out to the washer
• do my laundry
• blog, including back entries where I never mentioned doing this surgery [I am so behind; I haven''t posted since June. I have kept this blog since October of 2001.]
• ice!
• stay ahead of the pain
• remember to use the knee brace on the non-operant (right) knee since I keep forgetting
• ride ROMTech bike #2 (10:30 am)
• set up bill pay to pay rent/grocery fund
• ride ROMTech #3 (1:00 pm)
• do puzzle #2 for the afternoon
• eat lunch
• do midday PT exercises
• return a missed phone call from yesterday
• have friend bring me the clean clothes in a hamper
• fold the clean clothes [these include the linens for Sabbath dinner tomorrow]
• ride ROMTech # 4 (3:30pm)
• do puzzle #3 for the evening
• ride ROMTech # 5 (6:00 pm)
• eat dinner
• watch episodes 1 and 2 of season 2 of 'Desperate Housewives'
• take evening meds
• do nightly PT exercises

It's not what I would call thrilling, but it'll keep me occupied. 🙂 I'm going to try something new tomorrow and cut the time in between the ROMTech sessions from three hours to 1.5 in an effort to get them knocked out in a reasonable time. We'll see. That may be too much at once. But I don't have any appointments tomorrow. If you're wondering why I am doing laundry rather than my roommate, there is a perfectly non-logical story involving oaths to long-dead relatives about that going back over two decades that I won't get into but suffice to say that I am perfectly capable of putting clothes in and out of a washer and dryer, especially if I open the other utility room door (I don't normally bother, I just open the dryer and pull things out by kind of leaning over, but there is a bolt that goes into the floor where the door in front does actually swing fully open so you have full access). I just can't carry at the moment. Actually, my clothes are in a rolling cart, but still....I'll ask him to do it, just to be safe.

Okay, it's 6:30 am. I'm not sure if I'm sleepy or no.t. Maybe I should start my day with a little music. Have a lovely morning.

Meltdown

I'm afraid I'm about to overshare, but try to understand what it's like living with issues such as anxiety, bipolar II, and ADHD all at once, all of which are normally quite in balance and do not easily reach the tipping point thanks to modern medicine.

So today had such promise, but it wound up being Lisa and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. It was even our holiday celebration at work (socially distanced and virtual even), and I wore red and black and a jolly Santa hat with a bell on it, but I am so terribly overwhelmed at work at the moment that I didn't let myself take part in the festivities or even enjoy our provided lunch [well, yes, the brownie was good]. It didn't help that I missed my oral meds last night, and because of that, when I went to take them this morning, my holder was empty, because I didn't realise it needed to be filled. So I didn't have the medications that help me focus with ADHD or the ones that keep me from being anxious and falling apart in an emotional mess. Don't get me wrong, anyone would be overwhelmed (I think I've gotten over 25 offsite requests to schedule this week and had several others in-progress). But no amount of breathing or trying to put things into little chunks helped. I did get a lot done, even so, better than a normal day in some ways and worse in others. But I felt absolutely horrible the whole day, had a terrible headache, and didn't relax at all, feeling like a hamster spinning in a wheel while drowning all at once. Most people went home early, and I was going to stay my full shift, but after I started catching small errors I was making, I decided I had to call it a day and left about 45 minutes early, as I was absolutely no good for anything at that point and wasn't going to get anything else accomplished and just might make it worse. So I tried to focus on what I did get done, but on the shuttle to my car there I was, in a Santa hat with a jingle bell, just crying. It's a good thing I had a mask on.

But a couple of nice things happened today. I won parking for a week in March. A man let me go (with my one item) before him at the line at Kroger, where they were really backed up. I got home and had Sabbath dinner, and it was really nice, vegetarian tsimmes with carrots, honey, and raisins, Quorn roast, cranberry sauce, and challah. The company was good. My roommate was very supportive and encouraging, even when he called me at work to see if I was able to stop by the store, and he realised how fragile I was feeling. So the day is ending on a better note. Monday I'll try to hit the ground running with the phone calls I need to make. Tomorrow is another day, and in this case, tomorrow is the weekend, so I'm going to focus on resting and getting back on my schedule. This is the worst I've felt since August, when I had to ask my doctor to change my medicine because I was in a very dark place and was a bit of a danger to myself briefly, something that surprised my doctor, as I'd been completely stable as long as he'd treatment me over the last decade. Since we made the adjustments I've been fine, at worst a little stressed. That worked for a good solid three months. But I missed two doses and it all fell apart. I hate to think that I'm that fragile. But it does mean I need to be more proactive in self-care, definitely.

Up

I won't say early, because compared to the weekdays I've actually slept in, getting up right at 9 am. But in the 30 minutes that I've been up, I've started a load of laundry, started a loaf of bread making in the bread machine, gone out to the car to get some Diet Sunkist from my car, nicely chilled, and am now caffeinating. It's why I drink the stuff--I don't care for colas that much, preferring fruit flavour, but it's the only orange soda I've found with caffeine. That said, I know soda, in general, is not so good for me, particularly with artificial sweeteners (Diet Sunkist uses aspartame). So I have been exploring other options. I don't care for coffee or black tea. I've tried Mio Energy and Crystal Light Energy but they are artificially sweetened as well. So I'm still looking. And yes, I like water, but I need a little caffeine to get through the day or I'm like a zombie.

Also since getting up, I've also taken my insulin and Byetta (but not the oral meds yet--I'm at the end of my pill container and need to fill it up. I need caffeine before I do that, or I tend to put them in the wrong slot or even drop them, which is not good when you have cats, particularly a kitten, who is fascinated by all sorts of things dropping to the floor.

I did splurge just a bit yesterday, buying a Kindle book of a regular book that I have out from the library. It is called Orchid Modern: Living & Designing with the World's Most Elegant Houseplants By Marc Hachadourian, the curator of the Orchid Collection at the New York Botanical Garden. It's a lovely book, dealing with the history of orchid collecting, the different species, plant care, creating decorative projects like terrariums, creating a good environment for the orchids, etc., all in one substantial book and generously and beautifully illustrated. I really liked looking through it, but when it came to reading--and he has a good writing style--I found I was impeded by the relatively small typescript, no doubt small to leave room for the lovely pictures of orchids. So I got the Kindle book because while on my e-reader it would have been wasted, I normally read my books on my tablet now (which is not a Fire, but I use the Kindle application on an Android tablet. I say splurge because it was $10.99 and I don't have much money, and I am trying to get tyres soon. But it is such a lovely book. What can I say, orchids have a long history of causing mania, why should books about them be any different? Anyway, this way I can increase the text size to see what I'm reading. My glasses do correct to 20/20 both in general and with the bifocal, but the small print is still harder to focus upon. This, I think, is the most useful quality of e-books, that they can be manipulated in terms of settings so that anyone can read them who would normally have issues due to age or disability, and most books, particularly non-fiction ones, are not given Large Print editions. Also, you can blow-up images when needed on the tablet, something that the Kindle e-reader does not do hardly at all. Incidentally, I used to keep my Chrome settings at 95% and I knocked up the text and the rest up to a little above 100%. It helps immensely. No sense in getting eyestrain. I think the presbyopia is part of my hiatus from enjoying reading, so anything I can do to read more books is worth it. And I can also read on my laptop, which is a low-end 2-in-1 that folds back to be a very large tablet-like screen when you change to tablet mode and I have the Kindle application on it, as well.

Alright, I'm going to go get some breakfast. I'll probably write some more before I start my Sunday chores proper (although laundry is something I do on Sunday, that's for me, not the household, generally).

Today I:

1. Got pooped on by a bird within 30 seconds of exiting my front door, on a day where I was happy with my outfit and thought I looked nice. Fortunately, I was in a thin but long-sleeved shirt, so I didn't get any on me.  I walked back into the house, went to the front entry closet, where my clothes are kept (left over from when I was living in the living room), and changed shirts, although things didn't match quite as well.  Everyone I've told the story to has told me that it's supposed to be lucky.  I'm not sure how.
2. On the other hand, I went to take my medicine at the beginning of work and realised that one of the pills looked off, and in fact looked a lot like something I took last night. I pulled out a magnifier I keep with me to look at the imprint, put it and the shape and colour into the drugs.com database, and it wound up being tizanidine.  They're pretty mild, really.  Each tablet is only 4 mg and you normally take three at night, but they can make me loopy.  So I'm glad I caught it.  I went through the other bins of the pill reminder box and there was one more.  I'm not sure if I consolidated some other medicine and accidentally put tizanidine into a similar bottle, then put them in the reminder box, or what.  I think that's what happened, anyway.  To be honest, I'm not sure what small white pill I accidentally substituted it for; I think it was my furosemide (Lasix, or diuretic).   Thankfully, tizanidine (also known as Flexeril) has a scored side where you can divide it into fourths, and that's what clued me in because I noticed it last night when I took them. I guess that was lucky.  Oh,  wait, we're back to the bird poop.
3. After work (which was steady) I went and picked YKWIA from our friend's house, took him home, let him rest for a bit, then went on a major grocery run on my own.  It took an hour and a half.  I got everything on the list except wine.  I got to the liquor store that's attached to Kroger just at 10.  I asked the security guard if they were closed, and he said they were.  I asked when they closed, and he says, 'They're closed now.' Well, gee.  I got that part.  So I ask, when do they normally close so I know next time.  Nine? Ten?  It was ten--so technically I came up at 9:59, but oh, well, we'll have to get wine to cook with tomorrow instead.  Most of it was fresh produce, dairy, beans, that sort of thing.  YKWIA pretty much never cooks out of a box--it's all real food.
4. I came home, he helped me bring things in, and he put them away and I did a few small things to help.  Now I'm going to go plotz on the bed.

PS I started the manual update to the April 2018 Windows Update before I left.  It's still in the downloading phase, at 18%.  This may be an all-night sort of thing.  Okay, again, time to just collapse on the bed, listen to music and pretend my back still likes me.  Oh, and maybe take a couple of those tizanidine pills. :)

I somehow managed

to get through Friday, which was a slow 'catch-up' day in clinic, despite almost no sleep.  It dragged by, but I got quite a lot accomplished and got to actually speak with my co-workers more than just a moment or two, which on a busy day is kind of normal.

Last night, I kept YKWIA company while he made dinner and also some soup for someone we're visiting today who is battling cancer.  I haven't seen him in about 20 years, but YKWIA were good friends for a long time and he owned the comic book store we both worked in for a while.  So we thought we'd go and get caught up, visit, and bring soup.

I was very tired before bed, and I was still hurting a bit, although stretching to get things off the printer from my chair during work did help some.  So I took three tizanidine (the recommended dose), a muscle relaxer I've been prescribed for my neck issues. and I slept like a baby, only waking up early this morning to the cat howling because the wind through the windows had shut my door and he was trapped in my room.

Today I have:

1. Gotten some medicine I forgot for YKWIA the other day at the pharmacy, as well as a small bag for myself.
2. Paid my rent [I pay half every two weeks].  I'd forgotten the deposit slip for his account (we have the same credit union, so I just transfer it), but they were able to look it up.
3. Got new lenses for my glasses (for free!).  In August 2016 I got new glasses and got the 2-year Crizal lens warranty.  It was a year before I got one scratch on it, but even though I always use microfibre cloths, they starting getting scratches on both lenses when I was wearing my glasses full-time after running out of contacts.  So, I asked about that, they traced my frames and had new lenses recut and when they came in, I just had to stop by and they popped the old ones out and put the new ones in.  Easy peasy.  I did accidentally leave my travel contact solution on their counter, as I had to take my contacts out to check the lenses were properly made, so I'll have to get some more from the store.  But the travel size that comes with the first pair of contacts is pretty small, so I needed to get more anyway as it was less than halfway full.
4. Helped close all the windows in the house, as it's about to storm.
5. Made my bed (usually I do when I get up, but I waited a bit today).

When I got home, I started to feel shaky and wonky, checked my blood sugar, and despite having eaten breakfast (a toasted blueberry bagel, cream cheese, and a banana) just two hours before, my blood sugar was 48.  So I ate a sandwich with peanut butter and spreadable fruit and drank some orange juice (not in that order).  I feel much better.  I may have to dial back my insulin further, which is good.

Now I'm caffeinating and have a little downtime while YKWIA gets ready to go visit our friend.  I don't have to do any notes today due to the fact we visited without playing the Cthulhu game last week.  Tonight I should really work on finances.  I can't pay much of anything, but I need to come up with a plan/call a couple of numbers that are incessantly dialling my phone.  And I have to figure out what to do about the taxes.

Okay, that's all for now.  Hope you're having a good weekend.  It's been in the 70s here, and was nice and clear this morning, although it's going to rain the rest of the weekend, and then the temperatures will plummet on Monday.  But still, it was nice driving weather earlier.  I had Bastille playing in the car, the window rolled down (my hair is a mess), and my sunglasses on.  Not a bad day, so far, really.

Had a productive day today

Work went well. I got all the things I needed finished. After work, I did the following once I got home:

1. Started some bread in the bread maker.
2. Went to the store for shallots, leeks, and half and half.
3. Unloaded the dishwasher.
4. Washed the dirty dishes by hand, as we're out of Cascade pods.
5. Fed the animals and let the dogs out and back in.
6. Put my laundry away.
7. Spent some time with a friend who's having a really rough day.
8. Emptied my travel sharps container and put the pen needles in a regular one. I use a large prescription medicine bottle as a sharps container when I'm away from home, but I have to empty it every other day or so into one of those red ones that are larger.
9. Got out some more insulin from the refrigerator to take in my bag.
10. Ate a peanut butter and honey sandwich (we're out of spreadable fruit).
11. Took the bread out to cool, then put it away once it did so.
12. Listened to some music.
13. Dried the dishes that were on a mat by the coffee maker so they'd be out of the way for tomorrow.
14. Cuddled with the cat.

Now I'm listening to more music before bed--Of Monsters and Men. The cat is on my belly, purring. The plan is to go to bed early. I need to do that before midnight, anyway, as I've had trouble getting enough sleep lately and I've been dragging in the morning as a result. I have a dental cleaning appointment tomorrow, so hopefully that goes well. Then Friday I have an early-morning appointment with my psychiatrist.

My fifty-first birthday is Monday. I don't know why, but it's bothering me more than the last one, which was the big 5-0. I guess with closing the library and the lay off, etc., last year, I was just too busy and distracted to freak out. :)

Okay, I'm going to bed. Good night!

So apparently now my friend

Brenda has the crud that's been working its way through our gaming group, so there's no game tomorrow. I hadn't finished the notes yet, and that gives me more time to work on them, which I will at least try to start this weekend, if not finish them.

Later today I'm going to go over to YKWIA's and we're going to try to finish up 'Trial & Error' episodes before they expire on Hulu. It's a cute little show. I think we have five more to watch, and they've a normal running time of 30 minutes, so without commercials they're fairly short.

Okay, I've had breakfast (cheese and blackberries), checked my blood sugar, taken my insulin and some of my oral meds [I need to refill my pill reminder box], and I'm listening to the countdown on the radio. But for some reason I'm putting off getting a shower and getting ready to go out, so I need to do that. Have a great day!

I forgot

How much the Rocephin and Kenalog hurt (they're in the buttocks, one in each hip), and the area is sore for some time.

I took my normal medicine at night, the Breo, which is an inhaled steroid, taking special precaution to rinse my mouth, as I don't want an opportunistic thrush infection due to the antibiotics. The long-acting insulin is also important, because steroids wreak havoc with diabetes. They've moved me to something called Basaglar, because my insurance would pay for that but not Lantus. My pharmacist says it's very similar, just with an extra chemical chain. I have some Lantus left, but I decided to go ahead and just take the new drug first to make sure I didn't react badly to it, so they wouldn't fill it next time if I did. I am allergic to another long-acting insulin, Apidra, so it is possible to be. Anyway, I've done all that. Time to go to bed. Good night, this time for real.

I spent an hour in the middle of the night lying in bed awake

So I'm not quite awake this morning. On the other hand, I have:

1. Given YKWIA a wake-up call, as a workman is coming today.
2. Taken all of my medicine and checked my blood sugar, including updating my diabetes log program, which draws it off my meter through Bluetooth (I haven't been doing that, and I'm much more compliant when I do).
3. Eaten breakfast.
4. Fed the fish and turned on the aquarium light.
5. Added the last of the potting soil to the window boxes, now that the soil has settled a bit.
6. Watered the plant, inside and out.
7. Checked the job boards, the librarian job list, the unemployment office's website, and UK for jobs.
8. Checked my e-mail.
9. Gone through my Facebook feed.
10. Listened to the radio.
11. Tracked a package.

The package is out for delivery with UPS right now. I need to work on that entertainment centre, so that may be the big project of the day. I'd like to wash the dishes (there are only about five). Later, I'm going to take a friend to the doctor (which is probably when the package delivery will be attempted).

I have to admit, though, between my allergies and sleepiness, I just want to take a nap, but then they'll certainly come with the package. If they knock, I won't hear them, most likely. If they ring the doorbell (yes, I live in an apartment, but have an actual doorbell), I probably won't get to the door in time. It's absolutely maddening.

Okay, I've been on the computer way too much today already. Time to do something useful.

Despite a two-and-a-half-hour phone call last night

and a bedtime of around 2:30 am, I'm awake.

1. Woken up on my own before 7:30 am--check.
2. Injected my insulins and Byetta--check.
3. Waiting 15 minutes to eat--check.
4. Gotten something to drink--check.
5. Taken my oral meds--check.
6. Turned on Pandora, the Bastille station--check.
7. Gotten a banana and cheese from the kitchen--check. [I tend to eat less when I'm secure in having food. I know, makes no sense.]

I wrote about what I wanted to do today last night. I definitely want to start with the car tags and allergy shots, then make my way back here, open the windows, and start everything else.

Things I want to get today as well:

1. A wrist rest for the keyboard (I can't find my old one, and it wasn't in the best of shape, anyway).
2. Two concrete blocks. These are for going under the bed. My crossrail on my 30-year-old bed has sheared away from the side rail. Short of welding it, and at nearly 300 lbs, I'm not sure a weld would hold my weight for long, I can't think of any way to fix it, and apparently they're not standard--you can't just go out and get new bedrails, as far as I know. I don't want to buy a whole new bed and frankly can't afford it, so right now it's got one of those underbed plastic containers supporting it, which is weak, and it's sagging quite a bit, and of course, that's the side I sleep on. The concrete would do better--one for the middle of the bed, one for the side I'm on. Make jokes if you want about my weight, but really it's a bed from Sears I got in 1987, and it's made of wood and pressboard, so really, it's sort of the Sauder of bedroom furniture, not hardwood and high quality. But it generally works.
3. Pots and potting soil and orchid medium. Virtually all the plants need to be repotted, although I'll wait on the blooming orchids until after they're finished. Brenda, who is a master gardener, told me the reason my lavender has to be watered every other day is that it needs repotting, too.

So I guess that means a trip to Staples and Lowe's, too. I also want to do my pulmonary exercises today (I haven't been the best about doing that every day at home) and work out at the complex fitness room, since I feel more confident of working out without supervision, including the weights. I think our machine is virtually identical to theirs. I wish we had a Nu-Step, which is basically a reclining elliptical, as I can't do the standing ones--they're too hard on my knees. But we've got treadmills, a reclining bike, and the weights. And then this evening I might take a walk around the neighbourhood. My phone has been nagging me because since I haven't felt the best lately, I haven't gotten nearly the activity amount or steps in that I normally do. I usually get at least 45 minutes of activity a day five days a week and get over 5,000 steps. Not so, lately. It was nice to be working out on the treadmill yesterday and my phone detected a workout and gave me credit for it. I had 68 minutes of activity thanks to the workout and the grocery, and my steps were over 6,000 and came out to be walking about 3 miles. It's a start.

Okay, I feel vaguely more awake, ate my banana and cheese, had a little caffeine in the form of a soda (although I got some non-caffeinated stevia soda at the store and some coffee and half and half, with the idea of trying to learn to like coffee, since it's better for you). Time for a shower and then getting going on all this. Have a great day!

PS To reward myself for a day of accomplishments last night, I actually sat down and watched something on Netflix--the first episode of 'A Series of Unfortunate Events', which was delightful, and much better than that terrible movie with Jim Carrey. It's produced and stars Neil Patrick Harris as Count Olaf, the antagonist, and the guy who does the voice of Brock Samson from 'The Venture Brothers' and the lead character in 'The Tick' is the narrator. The books were great, but I only got through about three of the thirteen or so. The teleplay is by Daniel Handler, which is the real name of the author, Lemony Snicket, and he's also an executive producer. It really was excellent. There are eight episodes, so I have seven more to go. The other thing I'd really like to see, because I love the book and it looks very well done, is 'The Handmaid's Tale'. Of course, that's on Hulu, which I don't have. YKWIA has Hulu, and he did say I could watch it over at his house, but he has no desire to watch it, and he spends a lot of time on the computer, so it might be difficult to schedule. Maybe I'll try a free trial, and then just cancel when it's finished. I don't know. I have to watch my spending. And maybe eventually it will be on DVD. The thing about Hulu is that things expire much more quickly than Netflix. I don't watch a lot, even on Netflix, but I hope to use it more.

Just realised

that the one thing I didn't do this morning was take my medication, so I've taken the Lantus [which was painful, as I hit a capillary--I wish I could figure out how NOT to do that, after all these years] and my oral meds.

It's beautiful outside, and I've gotten a lot accomplished so far, although the next big project is taking out the trash and recyclables, something that tends to hurt my back more than anything else I do housework-wise. I'm not sure why--it doesn't even have to be heavy at all, there's just something about carrying something in that manner that does it. I usually get out my granny cart and do it, but I think I'll just try to do the trash in one trip and the recyclables in another. My container for the recyclables is totally full--I go through more of that than trash, really.

Right now I'm taking a break and having something to drink (which should be water, and isn't, it's soda, but I did fill up my filtered water pitcher, which was really low, for later).

I have been doing some job searching, too--I usually do check several boards and the library job list each day. I found one yesterday that isn't a library job, but sounds like it could be good, and pays about the same as the last library job I applied for. It's basically a position which assists the anaesthesiology faculty with technology, especially web technology. So I'm not just looking for library positions, although I would like to keep with that if at all possible. But I know it may not be.

I'm starting to get a little sleepy. I've kept the music peppy and my contacts are in, rather than my glasses on, so I wouldn't be tempted to take a nap. I need to make sure that I don't start napping in the early afternoon when I'd normally be at work; I'm trying to keep a fairly normal business schedule, although some days I've slept in a bit.

I wonder if it's worth trying to call the state unemployment office regarding the 'credits have been applied to your account but a check has not been issued' thing. Every time I've tried to call, it's stayed really busy, and I left a voicemail at the career center, and the person never called me back. I would probably have better luck going early Friday morning and asking in person. My understanding from a web search is that for whatever reason, it hasn't been finalised, although I did get a letter saying I was eligible and how much it will be, but there's not much to do, except put your claims in at the times specified, and eventually they'll deposit funds in my account. But it's a little frustrating, as they told us in our seminar before I was laid off that we should file, then wait 16 days (which I did), request benefits (which I did), and then we'd get paid a week later. And that's what happened the first time I got laid off and went on unemployment, but at least that was a reduction in hours and I still had some income coming in. They never mentioned this particular issue. Sigh. Granted, because of the 'waiting week' I was only going to get a week's benefits, but it would have been helpful. I also have to figure out whether next month, when I have to do my eligibility review, if I have to do it there in person, or if if that's what my meeting with the official was when I filed and I can do it on the computer, as while it says in the handbook the first one must be in person, he sort of indicated that I'd be doing it online. It was a little vague, though. So I can ask if I go on Friday, which I'm thinking I should.

Okay, the trash and recyclables are not going to take themselves out. So much for my break.

On a 1 to 10 scale

where 10 is the highest, I've been having pain at about the 7 or 8 range. Despite this, and the difficulties concentrating, I soldiered on through work and doing some things for YKWIA and A. So now I've used the heating pad and am somewhat, just a tiny bit, better. Now I'm going to take the muscle relaxer my doctor prescribed and some pain reliever, and head to bed. I have been doing my exercises faithfully. I hope this flare-up ends soon. I'll go months without any trouble whatsoever and then have this happen, although this is worse than I remember. I don't have physical therapy until next Friday, I think. It's going to be a long week. And I had my allergy shots today, so I was itchy and in pain. Joy. Oh, well, I'm sure things will be better soon. In the meantime, I'll just keep soldiering on.

I'm awake and having trouble sleeping

I've spent the last four hours tossing, turning, dreaming right at the edge of sleep, that sort of thing. I finally got up, took my medicine (I'd fallen asleep without it), and ate a little something, since I had tomatoes for dinner. I increased a medication today, and that can have insomnia and odd dreams as a side-effect. Maybe I need to dial it down a bit--I increased only 15 mg today, over three doses, but it may have been enough to disturb my sleep. I'm also hurting, so I took some arthritis acetaminophen to help with that. I have some Loreena McKennitt playing on Pandora through the TV. I'm going to try to go back to bed in a few minutes. I want to get up early and do some things, but at the rate I'm going, I'm not sure that's going to work.

I went by the library today and checked out some books on a subject that could help me in my struggle with a particularly difficult aspect of my life. I also found a couple of Kindle books at Amazon that looked useful, one of which was recommended on a website. I may read a little before going back to bed.

Okay, we're going to try this again. Good night.

Well, that doesn't make sense

This morning I managed to make myself presentable in general but forgot to refill my pillbox with my oral meds, and while I had my potassium bottle with me, I did not have the diuretic that went with it, so I'm not supposed to take it. As expected, I swelled up like an overstuffed balloon, especially my ankle--and especially the one that was broken when I got hit by the car almost four years ago. What I don't get is I weighed myself this morning and, curious, was wondering how much water weight I'm keeping on me now that I'm as tight as a stuffed sausage--and I weigh two pounds less than this morning. I give up on trying to figure it all out.

Last night I got home at 11:30 pm after running many errands for others; tonight I got home at 11:30 pm after helping a friend with various things, including cooking. (I made pesto by hand, because the blender is somewhat dubious at the moment, with a mortar and pestle and lots of stirring) It was nice, however, that when I got out of the car, I looked up, knowing the Perseid meteor shower is going at peak, just in case, and a lovely shooting star went right across the sky, one big enough to make it through the light pollution here at what used to be at the edge of the city, but which is now merely outer Lexington. Yay! I forgot to make a wish, though. :) My main wish at that moment was to come in and get a shower--it's very humid out there, even now, and I've been sticky most of the day.

Today I rescheduled one appointment and then starting calling opticians around Lexington. See, last year I got an eye exam, but my blood sugar had been running high, and so when I wore the contacts and the glucose was back in the normal levels (as it usually is these days), things were blurry, so I've been wearing my glasses that are between 2-4 years old. But today I found out that it's not a revolving year; my benefits kick in each January. I can get new frames every other year, and new lenses every year, so I'm eligible now, even though it hasn't been a year since I got the contacts. I still have about $258 on my flexible spending card, too, so that should help. I usually spend some extra on my glasses than the insurance because I get progressive bifocals and (usually) Transitions lenses, which turn dark in daylight. However, a serious drawback to the Transitions lenses is even though they are good when you are walking around outside, they are absolutely useless when you're driving and it's sunny. See, the auto glass prevents the transition, but doesn't block out the UV enough to help protect your eyes from damage. What I need are sunglasses. But I don't want separate pairs of prescription glasses and prescription sunglasses. Years ago I had a pair that had a magnetic clip that affixed the sunglasses to the glasses frames. I called around to see if anyone still carried those. My normal optician stopped carrying them three years ago. I tried another in-network group, and they didn't, but they suggested their second location, and I hit pay dirt with them. I have an appointment on September 2nd, and am on the call list should there be cancellations between now and then. Yay, again!

Okay, it's after midnight. I am ready for bed. Tomorrow promises to be a fairly long day, too, as a friend has an appointment after work and then we were going to go over some bills. I'm going to try to finish the notes tomorrow during his appointment--I just got a start on them last time, but then we did a lot of visiting and not a lot of action, until the end, so it should go pretty quickly. Investigation is what really bogs me down in the notes, because of all the details. This was mostly interactions and then one of Brenda's characters was attacked by someone towards the end of the game and fought him off. So I might be able to get it all done in that hour-long appointment. If not, maybe I can do most of it and have a little of Saturday to finish up. We'll see. I'm glad we're playing again, though. Okay, good night for now. Hope you're having a good week.

Still not orange :(

But,  hey,  as long as it works.  Speaking of medications,  this was what I took this morning. It's a little frightening.

So much for not being contagious

My best friend now has the crud. Same crud, but fortunately a lighter case. He didn't have to have the shots or the nebuliser. But he's been to the nurse practitioner, been armed with medicines, and is now resting at home. I went ahead and did a few chores to help out, then came back. I'm breathing much better now, although I'm still coughing, but in spurts, not constantly, as the generic Delsym helped quite a bit. My nose is doing better too, probably because of the guaifenesin I got this morning. So now I'm home, eating homemade bread with peanut butter and spreadable fruit, and contemplating what to do next. I'm not tired enough for bed, but not perky enough to do much more in the way of chores. And I'm hot, very hot, and have been all day, even though I've been in air conditioning for most of it. I'm wearing pants that are thin, but I normally only wear in fall or early winter, because they are velvet. I have a very light blouse on, but it has to have a camisole under it because of that. Worse of all, I didn't do laundry last weekend because I was starting to feel bad, and so I'm almost out of underwear, and so I wore--of all things--a pair of Spanx, which of course are probably made from Lycra and Spandex, and not particularly breathable. And of course, there were socks, as with all the rain I didn't wear my sandals. If my feet are hot, I'm hot. Those got chucked as soon as I came through the door. As soon as I eat I'm going to slip into a nightshirt or shorts and be done with that, and maybe sit in the bedroom in front of the fan for awhile.

Despite being sick, and all the coming and going for appointments, I've been chugging along at work. The only thing I really need to focus on tomorrow is my referral queue, as I haven't had the voice to make as many phone calls as I should have this week. I did use the nebuliser at work today, going to the far side of the library so the sound wouldn't disturb my cubicle neighbours, who were training a new employee, and as I took the treatment I decided it really is 'my Darth Vader machine'. It really helped last night to take the breathing treatment. Today I had a pretty bad coughing fit afterwards, but it's calmed down since then.

I'm really looking forward to having the holiday off. I don't actually have anything planned yet, and that's okay. Friday there is no 'Grimm', but there's a late appointment to take my friend to. amd there's another on Saturday noon. Sometime this weekend I should do laundry, we should do a grocery run, and there's Hotel Transylvania out from Netflix to watch, which arrived today. That's it. Mostly I think we'll just be recuperating from the crud. I'm not sure when the hiatus from the game is slated to end. I miss it. But Sundays have been less busy, I must admit.

Okay, I'm finished eating and it's time to compare cough medicines to see if the ingredientsoverlap enough that I shouldn't take the second dose of the generic Delsym now, since I'll take the other right before bed. I don't know if I'll write any more tonight, but if not, have a good one.

PS Hmmm...the Z-Tuss has an antihistamine and the codeine in it. The Delsym has a decongestant, but nothing else that might react. Only the night time Delsym is listed online as an interaction. On the safe side I should probably call the pharmacy, but I think if I take it now, and then take the other about midnight, it should be okay.

Oh, it tried for orange flavour

and so failed.

Apparently

I process codeine cough syrup in about four and a half to five hours, tops, so I woke up coughing slightly at 3:45 am, worse by 4:20, and then by 4:45 I was out the door with a cough drop in my mouth on my way to Kroger for the daytime stuff so I wouldn't be coughing my brains out. Of course, it was thundering and lightning. It was sprinkling on the way to the store, a decent rain by the time I got there, and then all the heavens broke loose while I was inside (thankfully). I proceeded to stock up on vitamin B12 and D, since mine has disappeared, Kroger Mucinex and Delsym cough syrup, as directed by the nurse practitioner. I also got some bread, blueberries, and bananas, more Kleenexes for work--since I went through half a box yesterday, probably, and some trash bags and toothpaste since I was low. Everything fit in two bags. I did forget to get more Ricola drops, though, and I gave some to my cubicle neighbour, who was coughing pretty horribly yesterday, so I'm getting low.

Now I'm back home, and my strangling cough I had through the store has subsided while I'm drinking something. I'll take the Delsym in a few minutes. It's 12-hour, supposedly, so it can stay home. I'm already taking a small pharmacy and a nebuliser around in my backpack these days, anyway. It was funny, I was getting the Delsym and it asked for my ID at the U-Scan. They didn't even need my ID for the codeine the other day at CVS. :)

I did change back to my other masque for the CPAP, the one with the nasal area rather than the pillows going into the nose, as my nose is a little raw these days. But I went back to the sizing card and my nose length is just on the border between small and medium, so I went up to the medium nose piece instead and it fits better, snugger, without leakage. I slept much better as a result. When I slept, anyway. Oh well, I got about five hours total. That's better than one of my co-workers who has a six month old who gets fed every few hours or so throughout the night. So I won't complain.

Well, it's almost six. I was planning on getting up then, but I think I'll take some of this new cough syrup and try to sleep till 7 am, anyway. And right on cue, there is the dulcet tones of my Scottish music (Battlefield Band) which indicates my cell phone morning alarm is going off. Better snooze for 60 minutes....