It’s been a long time since I posted, and a lot has been happening, to me, to the country. First, Covid, over 400,000 dead so far and climbing. I’m staying in, isolated, home, masked when outside anywhere for anything. You’d think that would mean I’d be getting lots of reading done, but, no. A few short stories, a Batman graphic novel, since Christmas.
By January 1, I was feeling pretty low, no energy, poor balance and Barbara felt I should go to the hospital. Unhappy, I went, and it’s a good thing. Turns out a medication I’ve had prescribed for decades for my seizure disorder has been draining the salt from me to such an extent that I was very dangerously low, nearly to stroke level. Five days on my back in a damn hospital bed, blood pulls every 4 hours around the clock, new meds and salt tablets through the day and night, very little sleep. I didn’t watch any TV or read a word. I missed the insurrection at the Capitol and all other news, but that’s okay.
It was glorious to get home!
I’m getting stronger now that I’m home, able to walk about some, stay up all day, and I had a video Dr. Visit with one of my two new doctors this morning, which went well, she is pleased with my lab numbers and I may get off the salt pills in a day or two.
This morning we watched the Inaugural events.That was very happy for me as I really hated Trump and everything he stood for. Easily the worst President in U.S. history.
The likelihood of receiving the Coronavirus vaccine is faint here, I’m 75 but they keep pushing my group back. Maybe by March 1st, they now say. Okay, whatever. I’m glad and lucky I have a nice home to live in, a wonderful wife, and two cats to live with. Lots of books, which I’m just now starting to read again, and the weather has been beautiful, cold and clear. Perhaps some snow next week.
Reading: E. B. White on Dogs edited by Kathryn White, essays and humor pieces written by White both during his years at The New Yorker and afterward, light and entertaining. Easy to focus on and pick up for a few pages at a time.
Next: The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman from the library.
Just arrived this morning: the final four volumes, 6, 7, 8 and 9 of The Complete Dr. Thorndyke by R. Austin Freeman. I will now have them all on shelf, but have only read the first couple so far. I like them a lot.
Tip the Wink 
It’s good to hear that you’re making progress and getting stronger. I wish you a speedy recovery!
Thank you Margo, I really appreciate you always looking in when I post.
Yikes! I’m so glad you went to the hospital and got yourself all taken care of and that you are on the mend. Definitely a good time to avoid getting out any more than you have to and catch up on the reading you missed. Stay well!
Thanks, Carl. The hospital stay really wore me out, I’m covered with bruises from shots and blood pulls, and sleep is illusive still though in my own bed. We had safety bars put in the master bath shower and toilet areas Tuesday, and I’m glad for them.
That’s good. It is always better to take safety precautions like that.
Thanks for bringing us up to date on your hospital visit. Good for Barbara getting you to go to the hospital. That is scary and I am so glad it came out all right. And that you have new medication and are improving.
I can only imagine how miserable it would be to spend 5 days in the hospital. A few years ago I spent 2 days in the hospital and I thought I would read and sleep and I don’t think I did much of either.
I look forward to hearing what you thing of The Thursday Murder Club when you do get to it.
Tracy, I DID NOT want to go, but it’s a good thing I did, the sodium thing wouldn’t have been found otherwise.
Glad to hear you’re up and about again. I bought The Complete Dr Thorndyke set many years ago, and consider it an excellent investment. Some of the novels are slow going though, especially where there’s a long chunk of exposition by a new character/narrator, before Thorndyke FINALLY shows up to straighten it all out. I re-read the short story collection cover to cover every year or two.
Good to know, Art, thanks. I’ve read the short stories, or most of them, now but jut one novel.
I’m glad things are looking up for you, my firned. Heal well!
Thanks, Jerry, I’m doing my best, which isn’t much these days. Thank God I have Barbara to help me.
Better times ahead, for us all. And further condolences in re your brother.
My only inpatient hospital stay at least allowed me to see THE SPANISH MAIN. Fritz Leiber the writer sure looked a Whole Lot like his father, who has a major supporting role in that film.
I never turned on the room TV, just slept between nurse wake-ups and pokes, prods and blood pulls. I still have many limits, on the amount of liquids I can have a day (1.4L), fruit, carbs, coffee (1 cup per day), etc. no potatoes, no fast food. I should lose weight, but hardly so far.
Glad you are home at last and regaining your strength. Yes, the national news got a lot better.
It’s been a little milder than normal for a January here so far, though the cold is returning this weekend. As long as we don’t get the snow, I can deal with the cold. It doesn’t make up for not being able to spend three months in Florida this winter (thank you, Ron de Santis!) but we’re getting by. We spend most of every day at home, just go out to buy groceries and pick up food at restaurants, or go to the library if a book comes in. (And Jackie gets her hair done every Sunday and her nails every other Monday.)
I’ve been reading a lot of short stories – 74 in the first 20 days of the year – plus some non fiction, but haven’t really read a mystery novel in a while. I did like THE THURSDAY MURDER CLUB a lot.
I look forward to it, but I am enjoying, as I always do, reading E.B. White.
You learned that you should always listen to your wife, especially when it comes to Health Issues! Glad you’re home and improving. Even on Happy Drugs, it was hard to get any sleep in the Hospital with all those blood draws when I was recovering from my knee surgeries. Hopefully, Trump is gone for good!
Amen.
So glad to hear from you. I was getting pretty worried. I often wonder if the meds were take do more hard than good, especially when we add on without looking at the whole picture. I know my grandmother was on Valium for 50 years and had no idea she was taking a sedative. (Prescribed after a hysterectomy) No wonder she couldn’t walk a block. But on the other hand, she was always calm.
Thanks, Patti, the drug was the best for the job at the time it was prescribed, but decades later there are better choices that my Doc never told me about and he never tested my sodium level. I never have eaten a lot of salty foods, and barely salt veggies and meat. Now I take salt tablets! Mostly these days I’m just tired, but I try to walk about more.
Glad to hear you are getting better. Hoping for your full and fast recovery.
Thanks, man.