"And Now, The Weekend Update. "

HHello everybody. I am so sorry that I haven't been around to visit all of you. And some new people too which I feel so badly about. I am starting to feel a bit better today but truthfully I haven't felt at all like reading or commenting.
It all started on Sunday morning. My husband woke up feeling really sick. He has COPD so when he gets sick, he gets really sick.

I was feeling kind of funky but I just wrote it off as the end of the steroids from the poison sumac which is completely gone now thank goodness.

Monday morning proved me wrong. My husband managed to get into see our doctor's new helper doctor, who was young and alright I guess but just wasn't as familiar with my husband as our own family doctor was. But none the less he prescribed two different antibiotics for my "big man husband". He was slightly skeptical of the dosage, for good reason. I will elaborate later.

This bug of sorts was located in my husbands chest. As mine was. I don't have COPD so I thought that I would tough it out. The steroids that I took the previous week did such a number on me that I wanted nothing to do with anymore medications of any kind. Besides I had a doctors appointment for Friday as a follow up to my bloodwork. If I still felt sick I would tell him then.

Well come Wednesday morning after having a fever for two day and my lungs feeling as though they had a rubber band wrapped securely around them, I called the doctors office. By now I had pretty much lost my voice from all of the coughing which made telling our nurse, Candy, how I felt a bit difficult.

Within an hour our doctor had called in a prescription for ZPack for me. In the meantime since my husband has COPD we own a nuebulizer, so we were both doing breathing treatments which did give me some relief. Not much but some. My husband was feeling a bit  better but still felt that steroids is what he needed. The new young doctor, I think, was afraid to give them to him.

What an awful week friends. My husband and I tag teamed cooking and walking the dogs. Although I think that he did most of the work. I was craving homemade soup. And wouldn't you know it, this week I had nothing to make any with.

So here it is Friday. My doctor, our family doctor who I think we love, was going to see me. And I was dragging my husbands butt in with me damn it. Yes our doctor has taken care of us both at the same time for the price of one in the past and I was sure that he would do it again.

As I said previously, this appointment was made as a follow up to blood work that I had to have done. So first I will tell you the results of that blood work. I am actually quite excited. First of all my blood pressure is great again. Not good but great! I was also tested for R.A. which I really didn't think that I had but they wanted to be sure because my arthritis is so bad. I don't have it. More great news. Now here is the exciting part for me. I dropped my cholesterol even more, all on my own. I am on medication for it but when they tried to raise the dose I got very sick so they lowered it again. But by eating right I lowered it within forty points of what he would like it to be.

It is actually fine for a normal person but since I've had two strokes he wants it even lower. I never claimed to be normal have I ? 

I told my doc that I am planning on moving forward with the knee surgery. Right now, I can not walk for more than ten minutes let alone workout anymore.

I also told him that I felt confident that I could lower it more once I could move better once again. I am an active person. I hate to sit. This has been a nightmare for me. So, I will be moving again.

My doctor felt that I was pro active enough that I could lower the cholesterol even more on my own. 

And then he said something horrible. After listening to my lungs, he wan't me to take steroids!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I begged and pleaded, I said NO. I can't handle those again!! So he said o.k.and gave me a shot instead. And an inhaler. O.K. I can deal with that! He also gave me about $90.00 worth of samples  of my regular meds! 

This is great news since my husband had to take another week off of work. It really helps a lot. Than he gave my husband the steroids that he needed, at no charge. I told you this guy is great.

Before I left I just had to ask him, even though he had a hard time hearing me, "Am I healthy enough for the knee surgery?". He said " Oh yes!, But you need to stop talking so much.". O.K. I know my voice was just a whisper and I was a bit hard to hear. Yet I couldn't help but wonder if he was being my doctor at that moment or a man. I'll have to give this some thought.

So we are home now and my husband is all hopped up on steroids playing video games as I type this. My throat is a bit sore but I am definitely breathing better this evening. And I am feeling much, much more confident about the knee replacement today.

I have been off my feet for almost an entire week. The bit of walking that I did today really made me realize that this is something I need to do.

I can't end this without a mention of a good friend of mine who passed away last weekend. We met through church eight years ago but also had other family ties previous to becoming church family members. He was a wonderfully supportive friend to me in my job. I can honestly say that next to my Pastor, he helped me more in my job than anyone there. Being a church secretary is not as easy as one would think. This warm and friendly man did all that he could in all of the offices he served to help me. 

He was a friend. I will surely miss his warm and caring attitude. He had a rough battle with cancer this past year. He leaves behind a loving family. He will be missed. May God Bless you Ron, and please, say Hi to my mom.