Anniversary and smacked

March 31, 2025

I'm sorry I haven't gotten to all of your hodgepodge posts and your comments here, but I'll get that done. I've been a bit mentally overwhelmed with everything the past few days as you'll see from this post.

Son John let me use his Suburban so I could go visit Jerry yesterday at the nursing facility to spend some time with him since it was our 30th anniversary. It was nice to just be with each other instead of having the rush of appointment days.

Jerry isn't coming back as well from his February health ordeal as he usually does. It took a lot out of him this time. He's still weak from all the potent antibiotics and what the UTI bacteria strains did to his system. Being in the hospital for so much of February didn't help him either.

I've beat myself up in my mind thinking if he'd still been home, I would have had "eyes on him." From past experiences, I'd have recognised the first signs of what was going on and been able to get him to the doctor ... and maybe we could have avoided things getting so bad. The facility staff were still getting used to him and didn't know his particular signs, and I certainly couldn't tell over the phone what was going on when he would call me on his usual "every-other-night-call-the-wife" times (residents without cellphones can use a certain mobile phone that is kept at the nurse's station).

On the other hand, it's good he was in the nursing facility. I couldn't have dealt with all of this if he'd still been living at home. I just pray his health and strength returns.

Both of us had our usual follow-up doctor appointments last Thursday. Our doctor got things straightened out on Jerry's medications. My yearly lab work was due, so I had that done. The results smacked me in the face, especially since I've been feeling so good.

My kidney function has worsened, vitamin D is low, liver enzymes slightly up, mildly anemic. But my A1C is so much better, yay! I've had to stop two medications that are probably making the kidney function worse (Meloxicam and Lisinopril). And I'll start going back to see the nephrologist who I haven't had to in 14 years.

Isaiah 41:10 - Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

If you're taking Celebrex (which I did for ten years back in the late 1990s's/early 2000's), or Meloxicam (I'd been taking that one since a year ago), I want to warn you that both drugs will mess with your kidneys and liver, plus give you high blood pressure. Celebrex also causes tooth loss, which happened to me ... I have no teeth. Celebrex is great for osteoarthritis, but has many side effects. My case is on the VAERS website for the side effects of both of these drugs, plus those from my childhood vaccines.

The temperatures over the weekend into today have been chilly, although oddly humid. Looks like we might be in the lower risk for severe weather tomorrow and into the night. Only a low risk of tornados. I don't fret the weather as I'm always prepared. We're rolling into April, and that's when our tornado season begins. It doesn't stop until mid-June usually, but can last into July. Thank goodness Jerry is in a facility that actually has a basement where they can take the residents if severe weather hits.

Well, that's it at the moment. I'll leave you with a photo taken by a previous girlfriend of my son's taken on July 13, 2015. Yes, the running joke is that's what Kansans do when the tornado siren goes off. "Quick! Let's run outside to watch the tornado!"  🤦🏼‍♀️ That tornado was going west and was five miles out of town. I was staying with the three oldest grandchildren (who were still too young to be left to their own devices at the time) for a weekend while my DIL Amanda was out-of-state at a work conference.

I remember this well because granddaughter Madison and I had to run outside before the thunderstorm to put the cover on the pool. Then, when the sirens sounded later, grandson Andrew and I had to coax and drag their dog Persimmon ("Percy") down the rickety wooden basement stairs. She wouldn't do it because she was afraid of the stairs.

Blessings,

Diana 🌻