Yet Another Journal

Nostalgia, DVDs, old movies, television, OTR, fandom, good news and bad, picks, pans,
cute budgie stories, cute terrier stories, and anything else I can think of.

Contact me at theyoungfamily (at) earthlink (dot) net
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» Wednesday, January 26, 2022

Coasting in January

So, what have we been doing since James' return from the hospital?

Not much of anything, which suits me just fine, although James is growing more restless by the day.

I did, after seven days of sporadic work, manage to get all the Christmas stuff down. I really didn't feel like doing it, so it came in fits and starts over a span of a week and a half; I started with the small stuff and of course then finished up with the big tree, and everything was down by the 22nd. I was restless and unhappy over James' foot and how he was feeling, and I just wanted to disappear into whatever story I was writing or editing and not be here. Living in my head was much more preferable.

Did get the bed changed finally, and the usual housework.

Amazingly, James thought he would just get out of the hospital on Wednesday and be able to go shopping on Friday! I said nope and have done the shopping two weeks in a row; I prefer doing it by myself anyway, as it goes so much faster—James likes to browse; I take pride in being able to do three grocery stores in less than ninety minutes (that's driving time included, BTW).

We had snow on Sunday the 16th, but no accumulation. It just looked like a snowglobe outside.

James had two followup appointments last week, and will have another one Friday. The Wednesday one was just with his GP and most of what Dr. Mobley did was update his prescriptions and check his heart and breathing. Dr. Friedman in Podiatry did unwrap his foot, so I was able to see the surgical area for the first time since the surgery. The swelling had gone down markedly from the hospital, and from now on until it is healed I have to clean it every two to three days, apply betadyne, and then re-wrap it.

Monday was kind of a medical day. James has had a bad sore throat since they intubated him to close up the surgical wound, and it has been bothering him. He skipped work on Monday and got an early appointment with Dr. Ellenoff to get that checked; threw off my entire day and discovered I can no longer eat quickie breakfasts like Belvita breakfast bars like I used to. Boy, was I sick!

I also got to tend the wound on Monday. It got messy; I don't have the same bandages and gauze as the doctor did and the betadyne I put on the gauze that went over the surgical wound got on the spread, the rug, the sheets, the blankets...sigh. The wound itself looks great; the swelling on the foot right now seems to be completely gone. James does have two blisters/rough spots where the surgical boot is rubbing on his big toe and the toe next to it, so I had to treat those, and he barked the middle of his lower right leg on something, so I was wielding the betadyne with impunity that night.

We will be glad when he gets done with the antibiotic because it has completely screwed up his blood sugar—not making it go up, but making it go down! He has had crashes almost every afternoon for the past few days. Today I fed him pudding, two slices of American cheese and three slices of low-sodium ham, and applesauce, and still had to make him two slices of wheat toast with blackberry spread liberally on it to get his score up from 46!

(At least we think it's from the antibiotic; we don't know. It could be the new blood pressure medications the hospital put him on, including a medication they took him off years ago because it didn't work! All we know is that with him taking the antibiotic, he hasn't needed Metamucil for a week.)

It was cold enough today that we could open the curtains and let the sun in; can't do it any other time but in the winter because it makes it too hot in the house and the air conditioner will immediately snap on and labor away wasting energy. Better to keep the shades down and the curtains closed and save the energy; the LED bulbs can't use anywhere near the power the AC does.

Other stuff: watched the remake of The Magnificent Seven. Denzel Washington was great as the lead (but Vincent D'Onofrio's character could have been much, much more fleshed out... 😁 ). Slowly working our way through the end of season 14 of Murdoch Mysteries (love Detective Watts, really hate Constable Higgins (or maybe it's his dippy wife I really hate) and season 2 of CSI.

James is planning to make another stab at coming shopping with me; so far just the doctors' visits have been wiping him out.