Saturday, January 7, 2023

My first week of the New Year wasn’t great. Not sleeping well, so tired I didn’t even want to read, and such acid reflux that I stopped eating anything except oatmeal, soda crackers, Babybel cheese and chicken broth. When I had my appointment on Thursday the doctor gave me a prescription for the acid reflux, as well as a sleeping aid. I’ve been eating much better these last few days – everything tastes good. I know the steroid I’m on messes with my sleep so I haven’t tried the sleep aid. I’ll try it if I need to though.

I had another change in my medications – he has cut the steroid pills in half so hopefully my “down” won’t be so bad when I come off them. I’m taking them for a day longer this time. The nurse had trouble getting the IV into me for my treatment yesterday – even though at my first treatment she said she was probably the best at it in the hospital. It turns out it probably wan’t the IV site but my blood pressure was low and I was probably dehydrated so one of the three tests she had to do before my first injection was failing. After giving me lots of fluid she got the positive result she needed and we were on our way.

I felt a bit nauseous most of the day so lay on the couch for the most part. I thought that might be the case for everyday with the reduced steroid but I’m okay today. I even had enough energy to go for a walk around the block – Pat says our walk was probably the equivalent of once around the track. The rain has started so I’m glad we were out early.

There have been some bright spots in the week as well. On Tuesday we went over to Comox for my echocardiogram and we had time before my appointment to have breakfast and a visit with Peggy and Bill. It is always good to see them but after not seeing anyone for so long it was doubly nice.

I also had a sewing day with Stacia and Deloise, although my sewing was minimal. We were all working from a book we had purchased on our summer trip. I would do a few seams or a bit of trimming and pressing and then I’d go across the hall and have a rest on the futon. The pieces are all cut so whenever I feel like it I can stitch a few more blocks. Today is the first day that I’ve managed to even make it upstairs and my desk is covered in papers that I need to deal with.

I think I have accepted that there will be days when all I can manage is moving from the bed to the chair to the couch but I hope there won’t be too many days of that and I’ll have a bit more energy for these next two weeks.