My daily routine

I had really wanted to give everyone more frequent updates on how I’m doing and more background on the whole incident but the recovery process just hasn’t allowed it.  However, I’m starting to have a couple of moments where I’m semi-functional so I’m going to try and catch up over the next few days.

First of all, the important thing to remember is the more normality that I can bring back to my routine the better.  Sitting in bed and having someone take care of me would be the absolute worst thing.  Doing things will help me regain my functionality – having things done for me will not.  Pretty much doing anything is exhaustive but it’s all part of the physical therapy process of recovery.

Having said that, “normality” is a long way off – and I’m talking simple, normal things like showering, shaving, brushing my teeth, making a meal, etc.  I  can’t do any of the above like “normal” (well showering perhaps but it still exhausts me for a half hour or so).

Another thing that’s strangely disruptive is trying to have a conversation (which is what makes this blog a real help in letting all know what’s going on).  I can’t really carry on a conversation in public. (trying to talk to someone who can’t get a full sentence out without breaking out in a cough doesn’t lead to much of an intellectual exchange).   Lying in bed having a phone conversations is better but anything longer than 5 minutes or so is starting to push it.  The good news is that there’s no real after effect from talking on the phone. It’s not like I have to rest and recover afterward.  It’s just annoying that I have trouble getting full sentences out.

With that as background, my daily routine can be described pretty simply.  The worst part of the day is when I wake up in the morning.  I feel like crap, I’ll undoubtedly have a coughing attack or two right away, and the simple effort of getting some nourishment in me to start the day becomes a bear.  The rest of the day becomes a series of trying to do normal things around the house, like getting dressed or taking out the trash, each of which might be followed by a 15 minute or so rest or nap, and occassionally even venturing outside of the house to run an errand or two – those can last from 30 minutes to a couple of hours and usually result in serious downtime, maybe 3-4 hour naps, when I return home.  All of which strangely seems to lead to a brief period at the end of the “day” where I feel semi-normal for a bit (I put “day” in quotes because even though it’s about 5 am Sunday morning, it’s still part of the Saturday “day” for me).

I should have explained earlier that I constanly have a low grade fever (i.e. under 100).  The doctors have explained that that’s normal during the recovery and nothing to worry about unless it starts jumping over 100.  So part of my feeling like crap is dealing with this low grade fever.  Everyone’s familiar with the feeling of being a little under the weather, where they have a slight fever, they often feel clammy, and they sometimes break out in a cold sweat.  That’s me constantly.  But in these moments at the end of the day where I feel good, the fever seems to break for a bit, and I can be a little bit normal for a few minutes (for example, I just got up, went downstairs, grabbed a soda and an ice cream, and came back upstairs and got back on the computer without anything happening – no coughing fits, no need to rest for a couple of minutes after my excursion – I was able to get right back on the computer as if I hadn’t even left – that’s usually not possible). 

So now here’s a very much more specific breakdown of today.  Today was going to be a “full” day for me. There were three must-do items on today’s agenda.   One, I popped a lens out of my glasses when I didn’t realize they were under the covers with me when I got in bed last night so I had to make a trip to get them fixed.  Two, I had to watch the PSU/Iowa football game at 3:30 EST.  Three, my antibiotic perscription ran out today so I needed to get it refilled.  

Now if I could somehow find a way that have my feel good moments occurr in the afternoons rather than the middle of the night, things would be a lot simpler.  But they don’t, so my external errands all need to be run in moments when I’m not feeling particularly well – and that’s not very helpful.  I had hoped to be able to combine both my glasses and perscription errands into one run in early afternoon so I could relax and watch the game in the afternoon.  Didn’t quite work out that way.

I woke up about 10 am and knew early on it wasn’t going to be a fun day.  Things started out with a couple of nasty coughing attacks each of which resulted in my collapsing back in bed to rest for a half hour or so. It wasn’t until amost noon that I was able to drag myself downstairs to get something to eat – and that process took about another hour.   So now I’m sitting at 1 pm and I realize I’m probably not going to find a good moment to run the errands and am just going to have to force myself.   I call the pharmacist to make sure I won’t have to wait while the prescription is refilled and the pharmacist tells me that they can’t have it done until 4 pm and that they close at 6 pm.  Oops – that means I won’t be able to combine the two errands No big deal and as it turns out doing both would have probably been two much anyway but it does mean that I’ll have to break away from the PSU game at halftime to pick up the refill – but with TiVo that’s not a real problem anyway.

 

To be continued…

 

I had hoped to get the whole story of today out in one post but I’m starting to feel tired (not exhausted tired, sleepy tired).   Even when I’m in feel good mode it still takes an abnormally long time to get things done. I’ve been sitting at this computer for almost three hours typing this.  Probably a good idea for me to go to bed and get some sleep.   More to come when Sunday’s feel good period hits.