Got up early this morning as I had to leave at 8:30 to go to Emporia for a doctor’s appointment. The sunrise this morning was beautiful. It is my favorite time of the day.
I get to stop taking my cholesterol injections. They were not helping to lower my cholesterol and they were causing side effects. He told me to not take the last injection next week. He had a risk calculator for my chances of having a heart attack. The only options he had for me was to add a statin, increase the dose of my blood pressure medication and for me to take a baby aspirin daily. We talked through all of them and agreed the only one that made sense was for me to continue taking a baby aspirin daily. If I did all three it only lower my risk by 0.5%. I had a rare side effect from statins when I took them before and I won’t take them again. My blood pressure varies a lot and I have lots of episodes of too low of blood pressure so he agreed it wasn’t smart to raise my dose.
He checked out my butt pain. I have a muscle that goes into spasms occasionally. He offered me some muscle relaxers – I refused as it only happens occasionally and I don’t like the side effects of them. Besides if I took them when it happened the spasm would be long gone before the muscle relaxer could kick in. He showed me an exercise I could do to try to work the muscle. I will try those several times a day. If that doesn’t help I am to let him know and he can get me into physical therapy to see if they can help.
I’m grateful to be able to stop the injections. I look forward to my Charlie Horse leg cramps going away. It was a good visit and I like my new doctor. He listened to me and was able to flex to meet my needs. He gave me lots of time and didn’t give me the impression that he was in a hurry. He had a medical student with him today. She came in and did a quick assessment before he came in. She was in the room while he chatted with me.
The nurse gave me the medicare memory test. I passed it but had to really concentrate on some of the things she asked me to do. She did a good job with me and didn’t make me feel stupid.
After I was done at the doctor I went to Cottonwood Falls and met some friends for lunch. It is always a good thing to spend time with like-minded women. I enjoy our time together.
I stopped by the rental house and chatted with my handyman for a bit. He made good progress today. I came home after that short visit and took a long nap.
After I woke up and had dinner I went into town and painted for several hours. I got one side of the closet doors painted, the new shelving in the master bedroom closet painted, and two other doors painted. Progress but sure have lots to do. I think the handyman is almost done so I will be able to go in tomorrow during the day and get more painting done without being in his way. I sure would like to get one room finished up completely.
I’m getting anxious to get the house cleaned up. It is so dirty from all the construction dust and paint splatters. It is hard for me to know how much longer it will take me to get the painting done as I have done some painting in all the rooms but haven’t finished any of them completely. Hoping I can start finishing up some rooms this weekend.
I got on the hot line last night and tonight. Last night I handled three callers. Thankfully all three were fairly easy ones and I had a supervisor I have worked with before and I like. Tonight I only handled one hard call. I had to get the supervisor involved. We were able to get the person calmed down – it was a weird call.
I realized last time I was on the Hot Line I was too involved and not able to stay distant. I was giving too much of myself to it. I would look at the number of people waiting and it would distress me when I saw how many were waiting. I was putting in too many hours and it had drained me. I will see if this time I can just do what I can do and leave the rest – it is not my problem that they are understaffed. I can only do so much. If I start to get sucked in again I will have to back out again. I spent a lifetime carrying too much responsibility and am not willing to carry that burden any more.
Tonight after the one hard call that lasted almost 1 1/2 hours I signed off even though there were people waiting, I was feeling OK but I didn’t want to push myself.
No plans for tomorrow or the weekend other than painting. Jim will be home sometime on Saturday. I hope to spend lots of time tomorrow in town painting. I think I can stay out of the way of the handyman. Maybe I can get a room completely finished tomorrow. That would feel so good.
The girls gave me 29 eggs today – a new record for them. That means everyone of them gave me an egg today. I’m glad Jim cleared out my stash yesterday as I added two dozen to it today.
I got my electric bill today for this house. I owe $0.20. They issue capital credits annually and this was the month for them. Without the credits my bill would have been $32.92. I love my solar panels and the money they save me each month. I didn’t use any of the power from the electric company last month – my panels generated all I needed plus some. The $32.92 is the minimum bill I have to pay each month.
It is time for me to slow things back down again. I have been to Emporia every day this week. I am longing for a day or two on the prairie where I don’t have to leave my house. I won’t get that for several days though as I have to get this painting done. It will be nice to have several days where I just have to paint and not go to Emporia. I have peopled too much this week and need some space!
Grateful I don’t have to take my injections any more, grateful for the time the doctor spent with me, and grateful for my friends that I had lunch with today.