Good things are coming, I just gotta get thru one more thing...

Last weekend when I was in the hospital for a blocked bile duct, they gave me a pair of those hospital socks with the nubs on the bottoms (to walk on slick hospital room floors with) and I said "Would you mind if I wore these double-thick tube socks I brought with me?  I have plantar fasciitis and those nubs are too painful on my feet."   They said oh sure, sorry to hear that.

Later that night around 1am when they came in to check my heartrate and temp, the nurse saw my swollen face and said "Douglas, wake up--I alerted the doctor you have a high temperature and one side of your face is swollen, were you stung earlier?  Do you have a food allergy?"  I said no, I've been dealing with a long covid relapse since mid-August and this happens every night.  She later returned with a naproxen to reduce the inflammation and I said "Can I just have some regular aspirin?  Naproxen interferes with the Amlodipine I take at night for my high blood pressure."  Cathy (the nurse) said "You're not doing too well, are you?  Hang in there!"  

Since coming home, I've been dealing with a sore stomach and then a couple nights ago, some pretty severe bloating.  Very painful on the right side (hence the hot water bottle is always with me) plus I am out of breath--constantly.  It's really pushing on my lungs.  

I am still feeling fortunate though--I was supposed to visit my friend Carl at the hardware store on Saturday to get help in retrieving data from my recently croaked laptop, but he called Friday morning and asked if I could come in a day sooner as Mitchell was there, and this was REALLY his thing.  I said of course, and Mitchell was a great guy--I brought along a couple flash drives and we were able to get the rest of my files off my old Toshiba.   

On my way home, I stopped at my barbershop and gave my barber Roe (who is also suffering with plantar fasciitis) a foot roller like the one pictured above.  I then stopped in my dentists office and canceled my next appointment on Oct 13, got back home just in time for my stomach to begin its crazy bloating thing.  I laid in bed Friday night, unable to turn on either side it hurt so bad.  God, what did I ever do to you?

It was no better on Saturday, in fact the pain was worse; at least it kept me from stuffing myself (which I am prone to do every weekend), all I wound up having was a bowl of hot & sour soup and some applesauce.  I had this bloating several years ago (also after a gallstone mishap) and it lasted 3-4 weeks before it fully went away.  

I haven't been to the senior center since mid-August, they've probably forgotten all about me (and I wouldn't blame 'em, I'd forget myself too).  I'm just amazed at this series of unfortunate events.  At the same time, I am liking my new computer and my feet are finally showing some real healing--still too painful to walk about barefoot, but I can stand in the shower longer and they're not in great pain in the mornings.

I've also been doing good at sticking to my healthier eating (you'll see in my next post) and the orofacial pain (from that horrific dental visit 4 weeks ago) is finally dying down too.  Now I just have to get this awful bloating to settle down and pray nothing else goes wrong--for a couple of weeks at least!

One more thing, I know my posts have been a real drag lately, and I'm always surprised when kind folk and online friends show up to offer their friendship & support.  Thank you, and I'm going to try harder to talk about things beside my health in the future.