Sick Once Again

Well it was a good thing I managed to get to church in July. It doesn’t look like I will be going to church with the large crowd nor does it look as if I will be going anywhere where there are crowds. Last week Monday I noticed my temperature was beginning to rise and by Thursday I was running a low grade temperature. Friday the home health nurse came and collected a sputum sample so the lab could culture it.

Yesterday morning the nurse called to tell me that I have yet another lung infection. Yesterday afternoon the doctor office called to tell me that they had ordered an antibiotic. So I will now have a couple of days with an upset stomach and being even more exhausted, all because of the antibiotic. If I remember correctly this will be the 3rd lung infection I’ve had this year.

I certainly am glad that P. and I went out last Tuesday to celebrate my birthday, even though my birthday isn’t until next week.

Happy Birthday Lunch To Me

Yesterday P. and I went to the Olive Garden restaurant to celebrate my birthday. I know my birthday is still a couple of weeks away, but we know that we have to do something like this when I feel up to going out. Last Tuesday I was too tired and kept falling asleep and today I feel good. There is no telling how I will feel next Tuesday so yesterday we went Out to Lunch.

We left the house about 11:30 in the morning and drove the 9 or 10 miles to the restaurant. When we arrived we found that all the handicap parking spots were filled so P. dropped me off at the front door and I went inside while she parked the van. Once P. walked in we were seated right away. We must have been just ahead of the lunch crowd because when we left at 1:00 PM there were people waiting outside the restaurant.

We decided to have stuffed mushrooms for an appetizer because salad and bread sticks come with our meal. P. decided to have the Tour of Italy, Homemade lasagna, lightly breaded Chicken Parmigiana, and Creamy Fettuccine Alfredo. I decided to have Braised beef & Tortelloni, Tender sliced short ribs and Portobello mushrooms tossed with asiago-filled Tortelloni in a basil-marsala sauce. Boy was it all good. And one nice thing we discovered was that because it was lunch time, the portion sizes were just large enough.

After leaving the restaurant we stopped at my neurologist to pick up some prescription refills. We were home around 1:30 PM. Boy oh boy I was so exhausted that I ended up taking a 2 hour nap. Needless to say I had a sandwich and some grapes for supper.

I must say that it really bothers me to have to play this “Do I Feel Well Enough…” game. But unfortunately that is now a fact of life for me. By the time we arrived at home I was so exhausted I couldn’t get to bed fast enough. However, knowing that this is now a fact of life doesn’t make it any easier to accept. It seems that my energy is slowly drip by drip dripping away. Sometime it is so much work to just move my legs or lift my arms, they just feel like dead weights.

But it could be worse; I could be in such a weak condition that instead of going out to Olive Garden, Olive Garden would have to come to me as carry out. It really was a lot of fun to sit across a restaurant table and have a meal, talking about the kids, grandson L. the house, car, any and all those things that make up a conversation. Also when sitting in a restaurant, you over hear tidbits of other conversations. The four ladies sitting behind me were passing photos of children and grandchildren around their table. They were also discussing how easy or difficult the parents of their grandchildren had it.

I am really glad that I can still go out for special occasions, even if we have to work around how I feel.