Bonnie Recovery

Chocolates and children: hooray

Another long delay in posting; sorry about that.  That bladder infection I wrote about in my last post hung on and on, and the continuing fever though low, wiped me out.  I seem to be over it now.  I was tested yesterday and don’t have results yet.  My sight continues to worsen making typing difficult.  The most annoying part is that cataracts make one very sensitive to light.  The direct light from the compute screen is painful, especially at night.  I’m putting in less and less computer time.  I finally got those shoes this past Monday.  I am able to walk slowly in them; I think they’ll be ok.

  If you have read the comments on the mystery of the chocolates, you know that Mary (Wetzel) sent them.  I had an intuition they were from her.  Daniel, a whole crew from EDS, and I went to Mary’s ordination in GA just the week before my incident.  I cling to the memory of those days.  Here is a joyous picture of us celebrating the ordination.  Mary is the smiling face behind Emmy in the black robe.

The chocolates were very Mary in spirit.  Some days in Cambridge I would just get “stuck” – physically (unable to get out of a chair), or emotionally, or spiritually.  And at just that moment, Mary would show up at our door bringing relief of all kinds.  I have so many friends who are beautifully spiritual.  My EDS friends are especially devoted to God’s mission.  Yet, as I watch her, Mary is the one to walks closest with Christ. She personifies mercy as I understand it.  I mentioned that I thought the person who sent the chocolates was not well versed in Lent. For those of you who are cradle Episcopalians over 50, you know what that means: the “giving up” of something, usually food, for unclear reasons.  A childish game.  Mary was raised in a Southern evangelical tradition.  No Lenten games.  Unlike us brat Episcopalians, she read the Bible.  Wow, in seminary you can really tell who was raised in a Bible church.  They know the Bible as us Episcopalians rarely do.  Mary lives the spirit of the Bible in the best way I know. Our church is fortunate that she became Episcopal.  Thank you, Mary.

Don’t think Daniel and I are too out of it.  I have a whole, miraculous, POD unpacking story I will save for another post.  We are mostly up and about. 

 

                       Abi putting on headset in car.                          

 

Last Sunday after church we went to Wilmington and took care of the three grand children until midnight Tuesday.  Jen and Scott had gone to Las Vegas for a five day vacation sans kiddos.  We got great help.  Jen’s father and step mother kept them the first three days.  Sally made a huge lasagna; it felt like it weighed 15 pounds!  It was great dinner for two nights.  They stayed near Wilmington in case we needed help.  Jen’s neighbors Beth and Warren came over two evenings to help out, putting Abi to bed, etc.  We had such a great time.  The children are amazing.  Zachary is a big help with the littler ones.  Luc is becoming quite imaginative, making up and playing out his own stories.  Abi is the smarty.  When she poops, she tells you and brings a clean diaper.  I would say to her, go get a diaper and she would toddle upstairs on all fours and bring one to me, then crawl up on the sofa and put up her legs.  So cute. Daniel brought me home at midnight after Scott and Jen came home.  We got to sleep in our own bed and wake up to the sunrise over the ocean.  We are having a rest catch up day. 

Life is good,

Bonnie for BanD

Mysteries

A good mystery and a bad one. 

We received a box of chocolates from L.A. Burdick.  For those of you who don’t know. Burdick is a fantastic chocolate company.  The best way to warm up on a cold Boston day is to stop by their shoppe near Harvard Sq (on the way to our EDS apt).  One of you sent this with no name.  The card was cute with instructions that the chocolate would be a good Lenten treat to fight fatigue.   It certainly has been good for that.    I do sort of like these “who sent it” mysteries.  I’ve narrowed the options to some who has lived in Cambridge, but added to that list a few other people I know who know Burdick.  The second clue is the reference to Lent.  The person(s) who sent the chocolate are comfortable with mentioning Lent, but I believe it may not be his/her practice. Among Americans chocolate is the #1 food people “give up for lent.”  I considered it this year and decided not to do that.  How foresightful of me! 

 So fess up.  Who sent this great chocolate mystery?

 My second mystery is neither tasty nor great.  I got quite a mysterious infection this weekend.  Sunday my temp was lingering around 102.  I did not want to go to the emergency room; I’ve never gone to emergency and not been hospitalized.  I had Cipro the doc had prescribed for when I have a fever.  I took it all of Sunday and today.  By tonight my fever was completely gone.  It is amazing how much better I feel.  I’m so accustomed to being tired that I don’t pay enough attention to when I am really ill.  Friday morning I was energetic and had a good physical therapy session; by the afternoon I could barely stay out of bed.  On Saturday I told jen we wouldn’t come to their house as we had planned.  I should have been taking my temp;   Instead, I assumed it was just my usual fatigue; my temp got to 101+ before I finally started measuring it. 

I go to the doc tomorrow; I was too ill this morning to go.  Maybe they will still be able to solve the mystery of what kind of infection it was.  I’m happy not to have another expensive hospitalization.  I now wonder if I could have stopped the near fatal one last October.

While we are in Wilmington tomorrow we’ll pick up my new size 6 shoes with the custom insole and fake toes.  I’ve started to practice with a cane instead of a walker.  The shoes may provide a bit more stability.

And of course while we are there we will see the grandchildren.  With their illnesses then mine, it has been far too long.

 Love to you.

Bonnie for BanD

 

 

Of death and taxes

Who was it that said there are only two sure things in this world?

 

On Friday of last week, I turned my concentration from one to the other.  This year’s ready to get ready to do tax returns was an extra long effort since I had done none of the year’s categorizing in Quicken.  It was a good opportunity to be more systematic than I usually am and to figure out the categories that are most useful.  With two rental properties, there was a lot to figure out as well as just the labor of putting in categories.  I’ve now finished rental stuff that goes to Ron and Jennifer who co-own properties.  Next week I’ll turn to the rest of our taxes and also analyzing where our money goes (like 17k in medical after our extensive medical insurance). oh well.  I intend to write sometime about our country’s ‘medical insurance crisis as we see it.

 

Tonight I finally read your wonderful comments on my Ash Wed posting.  Thank you.  I love having good friends who are priests.  I think about what you are doing frequently, especially on Sunday. Thank you for you images of how you spent Ash Wed.

 

Thanks for the frank interchange about life support.  I have a DNR that says no heroic means.  I wonder if the grand-scale prayer I get is a kind of heroic means.  It doesn’t have the vegetable connotation of medical means.  This may sound inconsistent, but we have subscribed to a medic alert system for which I wear a call bracelet.  Why call someone if you have a DNR?

 

One reason is that the company can provide my med record stuff like allergies and also provide a copy of the DNR wherever I am.  Daniel worries when he leaves me alone for even a short while.  I think my cell phone SHOULD be enough, but I’ve yet to figure out how to keep it with me all the time.  Unfortunately the call bracelet is only for the house because it relies on dialing the phone to connection an emergency assist person.   Seems to me that a cell phone app would do better, but there doesn’t seem to be such a service.  At $18 a month, this service is not a big decision during my tine of very limited ability.

 

Speaking of ability, I am doing better all the time.  I still like my wheelchair too much.  It is too tempting to roll around the house whenever I need to move, but using it, I don’t get so completely tired.  My leg muscles get stronger all the time.  I imagine a day, and soon, when I will simply forget to use the wheelchair.  The doc will unstitch my left eye on Friday and I’ll start to wear my contacts again.  I get a gamagobulin infusion again on Monday.  Good for my immune system.

 

Life at the beach is beautiful, though still cold for NC.

 

Love and the peace of God to you.

 

Bonnie for BanD