Three bad days

Thursday started out okay, with knee exercises, some chapters of Kings, then packing three more boxes.  I had no luck trapping the mouse so I called Hethwood but got no response.  I took a decent walk along Stroubles Creek, seeing a number of small fish in the clear water.  It is a pretty little stream and I did some research on it, finding out that it starts in three springs in Blacksburg, goes under the Drillfield, enters the Duck Pond, then exits to become Stroubles for 12 miles before it enters the New near the Ammunition Plant.  I called Gyorgyi and she was available for a late lunch at the bakery and that was fine.  Then I did a walk in Torgersen before returning home for dinner.

Friday was not a particularly fun day.  I had slept pretty well with some coughing but I got up pretty early to get to Rob’s office at 8 so that pushed me.   Val wasn’t ready until almost 9, having to get the blood culture bottles.  She had to stick me in both hands because the test is more effective from two sites but each stick hurt and even taking the needle out hurt.  But I handled it pretty well, with no valium.  I showed Rob my swollen foot and he told me it was probably because my kidney numbers were worse than last time and he told me that Trivedi wanted me to go back to 20 mg of prednisone right away, not good news at all.  He wanted me to get a chest x-ray even though my chest sounded okay to him.  My thyroid level was good so that is not what is causing my incredible chills.  The blood culture stuff should help figure out if I have an infection in my blood. My eyes are also getting worse, probably from the developing cataracts which have been hastened by the prednisone.  I headed off for lunch with Claire and that was a pleasant respite.  The sushi at Greens was good as usual and Claire and I took a decent walk on the Drillfield.  Then I napped pretty easily, then headed for the Imaging Center for my x-ray.  It proved negative so that was good news.  After that I napped again briefly, then called Mary and went over to help her with her packing for her move to Texas at the end of the month.  We worked for an hour and a half and got a lot of books and stuff packed and then we had Chinese food (I treated even though she wanted to pay), then we chatted some and then I left around nine and went over to Tech to walk but Torgersen was closed and it was just a bit cold to walk outside so I went over to the University Kroger and walked there for 30 minutes.  After that I came home and was too tired to do any exercising.

Saturday started pretty good.  I slept pretty well despite coughing quite a bit, and then I did my full knee exercises, along with reading some of Kings.  I packed 4 boxes more so I am only 2 behind on my goal of 12 (3 a day).  I did some catching up on my blog, sang 3 of the songs twice, tried to nap and failed, then started my prayers.  I felt well enough to go for a 30 minute flat bike ride with perhaps a cough or two, then I settled in to watch the Tech game, which Tech won 20-14, with a very exciting goal line stand my Tech to prevent Pitt from winning.  After that I got ready to go to mass and attended the 5 o’clock mass hoping to be able to practice the new songs, but two of the songs were different so I didn’t get the practice I was hoping for.  I saw Joseph and Felistus after mass and I gave Mary Bland back her book.  I had another good conversation with my sister Roberta and admitted what a dummy I was.  Then I had a long and good conversation with Lou.  He thought I should write about my Lupus experience and work with the wolf imagery.  Another thing that struck me was the lack of a future I have.  Later I  emailed Beth but she didn’t respond so I guess I will just wing it.   I went for a 20 minute walk over at Kroger and bought one of the small roasted chicken and enjoyed over half of it in my truck then drove home for a big bowl of vegetables.  Unfortunately I started coughing very heavily so that is very disconcerting.