Thursday, July 13, 2017

Day 2758

My doctor thinks I'm making good progress. There are no signs of infection. The swelling in my left leg is starting to subside. I'm even starting to be able to move my wrist again. My problem now is patience, or more accurately, a lack of patience. The healing process is so slow that it's driving me nuts. I'm still supposed to sleep with my feet elevated for another week and my doctor says it's too early to start walking again. I wish someone had told me to keep weight off my legs in the very beginning. I probably didn't help myself by walking as much as I did right after the injury.

Janet got a good report after her own doctor visit today as well. We are both doing everything we should and are on a trajectory to return to normal one of these days. You don't really realize how critical staying healthy is to a normal life until you're not healthy. So many little day-to-day necessities get thrown off track when all you can do is rest. I certainly couldn't have cared for Dot the way I did unless I was very healthy. I wonder sometimes if Dot might have known what was in the future for Janet and I. They say that dogs can smell cancer sometimes. Dot was very old and very tired at the end, but it was almost as if she made her final exit at the perfect time just to avoid being an extra burden for Janet and I now.

I just hope that Dash will stay healthy until we both get well. We've always known that Dash's vestibular disease could return at any time. He has seemed very agitated for the past two days and occasionally that is a precursor to further seizures. Dash has always been a moody dog and is used to an active lifestyle, so hopefully he is just irritated at Janet and I for spending all our time sleeping. It's ironic that this would bother him at all, since that's what he does most of the time. I do know that dogs like a fixed and regular routine and our routine has been temporarily broken. "Be patient, little buddy," I try to tell him. We'll be back to normal soon.

The doctor talked me into doing a bone density scan while I was visiting about the dog bite today. My bone density is declining, although it is still pretty average for my sex and age. I asked if I should start taking more calcium and he gave me an ambiguous answer. "Too little calcium is bad, and too much calcium is bad," he said. He asked whether I used dairy products and I told him that I loved cheese. Basically, it is hard to tell if you are getting the right amount of calcium to keep your bones strong as you age. Walking is good though. I'll be glad when I can get back to taking long walks.

Our air conditioner quit working for a while this afternoon and Janet and I immediately went into a panic. The last thing we need right now is a hot and humid house while we are both still wearing bandages. Luckily, the air is back on now, so we dodged a bullet. Sometimes in weather like this, the coil can freeze and it will shut the system down until the coil thaws out and the system stabilizes. I'm not sure if this is what happened, but it's happened before. I just shut the AC off for ten minutes and then turned it back on again. This seems to be the universal solution for everything these days. I turn the network router off and on again several times a week when the U-verse TV freezes or goes out.

I don't know whether I'll go out for breakfast tomorrow morning or not. I can drive again, but I'm just not very hungry. All I really want to do right now is get back on my feet again.

Watson is today's Dalmatian of the Day
 
Watch of the Day