7-8-2019 Monday-8:15am

Back again.

I'm still about where I was before I went in the first time.  Haven't gotten much worse, I guess.  As soon as I am up and about the toe swells and hurts worse.  Using my hand causes the knuckle to swell and hurt worse.  But I can get around and nuke my own food.  Just waiting for Wednesday when I go back to see Dr. Ryan.

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I  said I wasn't running a temp, but that's not entirely true.  I haven't been running a high temp.  Both Dagan and I will sometimes run below normal temps when we are sick.  Doctors don't seem to care about low temps, but I have been running between 97 and 98 degrees consistently and am hot and cold and get sweaty when I get up and move about so I am going to be sure and talk to him about that.  It's still a temp...just a reverse temp...because normally I run 98.6.

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Leah was over Monday night and we worked on my grocery list for Caroline.  Leah's got me on this low-carb keto diet for now.  I figure it can't hurt--another way to fight the inflammation.  She's been cooking for me so that all I have to do is nuke food in the microwave or throw together a salad or sandwich.  I can stand long enough to do that now so they don't have to be over here every day.  :)

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Tuesday I was finished with my medications.  I finally began sleeping longer than 3 hours at a time--whoohoo!  Been sleeping mostly at night and longer hours again.  More normal.  I even started to get back to my morning routine with Annie's needs (she's thrilled) and then doing my morning journaling (even if I have to do it in my chair and very briefly).  One tiny piece of normal lifts the spirits.  :)

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If it is cool in the morning I crack open the patio door for Annie.  She won't leave it until I close it later to turn on the AC--even if she falls asleep there waiting to see voles and baby cottontail rabbits and birds.

Wednesday I had more swelling in the toe and my knuckle.  Seems to have remained about the same since then--maybe slightly worse.  This is how my left hand looks--basically flat knuckles when hand is flat. 

This is what that knuckle looks like when my right hand is flat. 

This is today.  

Yup--might be a little worse.  (And I realize my hands are looking older than they used to--LOL!  That's what happens when you are creeping up on 70.)

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Anyways, I am so glad that while it was doing better I caught up on letters--short as they were.  :)  It is harder for me to hand write for very long now and to even type.

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Back to Wednesday...

Caroline brought my groceries.  I saw two partridges (almost said grouse) at dusk come to drink water.  Haven't   seen any since spring!  Leah came over in the evening.  :)

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Thursday I had a quiet 4th of July.

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Friday Dagan asked if he and Ian could come over for a little visit.  Since I haven't had a Gramma Day for a month--of course!  Well, surprise!!  Dagan brought me a new smart TV to trade for my old one!  Same size.  Lighter.  Two feet instead of a single base.  Has some kind of special HD that makes things look ultra-real.

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That's  a picture of Liam smiling on their old couch.  Leah has family pictures on rotation for a screen saver.  :)

Anyways, it already had all these links to Netflix, Prime, etc.  Cool! 

Dagan set me up with the things I have so I don't have to go through my laptop anymore.  I am slowly learning how to navigate this new smarter-than-me TV--LOL!

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This month my Amazon orders were mostly for Annie.  Saturday I had a package of cat foods coming.  When Alexa told me my package had arrived...Dagan came over to bring it in for me.  He even opened up the canned food boxes and stacked the cans in the pantry for me.

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On Sunday it was a 40# bag of kitty litter that Dagan came over to dump in the bin for me.  He took out trash and filled the birds water dish outside.  Nice to have visits with Dagan, too.  :)

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And that brings us to today...which should be another quiet day watching shows.  Thank goodness for all the choices I have when I can't do much else right now.  Can't even hold a Kindle to read, let alone a book.  Can't write very long...

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I hope I will find out more on Wednesday from Dr. Ryan.  At least he's on the trail.  :)

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Have a really good week.  

Hug those loved ones. 

Till next time...  :) :)

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Found this quote.  Funny--I've always told people I am a realistic optimist--LOL!

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"The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails."

William A. Ward