Regaining strength

This is Laurie, one of 2 infusion nurses who always seem to be working on the weekends. Her sidekick, Malene is a near look-alike and two are the friendliest people one could hope meet.

Today has been a day-off from visiting the hospital and a chance for Emma to get out and see some friends and run some errands without worrying about me. But I set her to worrying by starting up the pickup truck (it hadn't been run in nearly a month) and it felt so good to out on the road I went all the way to the produce stand where we get the good Utah corn and was gone more than half an hour (I left while she was out). So I got a scolding, but also got some corn for dinner and a box of good looking peaches.

I am afflicted with edema in my legs and hands, to a lesser extent, and it doesn't seem to want to go away. At the hospital yesterday one of the nurses (Malene, Laurie's sidekick) gave me an infusion of a diuretic that she said would take care of the edema and I would not make it all the way home without using a urinal, which she supplied to me. As with most of their predictions of outcome this too failed, in that I had an urgent need by the time we got home, but only ordinary requirements thereafter and the swelling remains a day and a half later. I try sleeping with my feet higher than my heart and see no improvement. Other than the edema I feel quite good, eat whatever appeals to me, and sleep good. But I am very weak with little strength in my arms or legs. I will have to strart serious walking soon.

In duscussing the need for wearing a mask when I am outdoors, particularly where there are people, I was told that I now have an immune system that is about as strong as the immune system in a newborn baby, and I should take no chances of encountering people with colds or other ailments. But we can safely go to see A Chorus Line on October 6 as long as I wear the mask during the performance.