Scattered Thoughts . . .

I t is really frustrating dealing with my primary care doctor's office lately.   First, if you don't call between 8am and maybe around 8:10am, you have no chance of seeing your doctor that day because their schedule will be filled up already.   Next, they won't schedule you to come in on any other days, only the current day.  Of course, annual physicals and follow-ups are scheduled in advance but not initial visits for a new condition.  This nonsense is extremely frustrating. I was already in contact with a nurse yesterday afternoon and I was actually advised to call first thing this morning to make an appointment to see my doctor or, I should go to Urgent Care as soon as possible.  I had already stated this fact to the scheduler when I called this morning. So, when I called this morning and quickly explained my situation and concern (possible sinus infection), the scheduler asked for the reason and I told her that I am COVID positive because I wanted her to understand that

W e're always buying books.  Most often those books are for the grandchildren but we sometimes purchase books for our own home.  Someday...  somehow...  I'd like to have a nice little library room to use as an office, research, reading, writing, etc.  Honestly, I'd rather have a library than a 'media room' or 'home theatre' which seems to be a popular thing lately.  I definitely prefer the television, movies, sports, home videos and even music in the comfort of our living room very near all the necessary facilities so a separate home theatre room does not interest me in the least.  A library with walls of fine shelving filled with books along with desks and computers as a separate room would be far more useful to me.  Plus, I am more of a 'traditional architecture' with separate rooms type of person.  The popular 'open concept' design that is getting very old and boringly overdone just reveals more clutter and there are far fewer walls for di

I noticed today that my runny nose has now changed from being a clear, slightly viscous liquid to an opaque yellow mucus which is a sign of my body fighting off an infection so I contacted my doctor's office to ask what I should do.   I was told that since I'm past the 10 day quarantine period then they want to see me tomorrow or I need to head to urgent care if I can't get an appointment tomorrow.  My doctor's office is overcrowded so, lately, it has been difficult to get a same day appointment so I wouldn't be surprised if I need to head to urgent care instead. So, in anticipation of my doctor's scheduler asking if I am displaying any symptoms of COVID and/or have tested positive, I decided to test again this evening...  It is two weeks into this horrendous virus and I am still testing positive! My fever still comes and goes in waves.  I have a cough and I'm coughing up phlegm.  As I already mentioned, my runny nose has changed from clear fluid to opaque

O n one of our mornings while in Manhattan with Kenzie and Lukey, we went to breakfast across the street from Grand Central Terminal at a place called Pershing Square.  This is perhaps our favorite breakfast spot and, as usual, we had an exceptional breakfast on this morning too.  Even Lukey and Kenzie were impressed with both the food and the service and that is saying something since we were there for perhaps the most informal meal of the day, breakfast.  After breakfast, we walked across 42nd Street and into Grand Central Terminal so I could show the kids one of my favorite train stations.  The kids enjoy visiting train stations so this was a good place for a short tour.   In the photo below, we are walking across 42nd Street to one of the entrances to Grand Central Terminal.  This is probably my favorite entrance because it leads directly into Vanderbilt Hall and then directly into the center of the Main Concourse.   Below, we are heading toward Vanderbilt Hall so this would be the

I finally managed to slow down my runny nose and watery eyes enough to get some sleep.  That was brutal for a few days!  Pumping a bunch of extra H1 blocker anti-histamines helped with this significantly.   Because I was experiencing the cascading anaphylaxis symptoms (twice in two days), I decided to use different types of H1 blockers to stabilize my body...   Benadryl, Periactin (a high dose emergency medication), cold capsules...  I would alternate from one to the next every two hours.  This seemed to knock down the cold/flu-like symptoms as well as keep me away from anaphylaxis for the past day so that is good.   All those extra anti-histamines also helped me get some sleep.  I was exceptionally drowsy from the medications.  I was also exhausted from the illness but the drowsiness really knocked me out.  I slept all day yesterday other than getting up to use the bathroom and eat.  Then I slept for 11 hours last night.   I feel significantly better today but I'm still stuck wit

I think I feel a bit better than yesterday morning but that isn't saying much.  I still feel lousy.   I'm a little over 24 hours into this rebound and I can say with absolute certainty that this rebound is far worse than the original viral infection almost two weeks ago when I tested positive for COVID. I have a fever yet again.  It comes and goes but my temperature is currently at 100.5  degrees.   My nose is itchy and sort of burning which makes me want/need to blow my nose constantly.  Tons of mucus is flowing out of it anyway.  Lying down in bed is impossible.  Within a minute or two, I'm sneezing and my face is covered in mucus from my nose.  Needless to say, I only managed to get a few minutes of sleep at a time through the night last night.  I just cannot sit up enough in bed to get some sleep but I seem to do better on the couch...  of course, I'm still sitting mostly upright on the couch when I sleep.  I'll attempt to get some much-needed sleep on the couc

I 've had COVID since we returned from Manhattan.  I tested positive the day after we returned home.  All in all, this bout with COVID seemed to be a relatively minor case.  The only troublesome symptom this time around was breathing problems requiring daily breathing exercises to help clear my lungs.  Other relatively minor symptoms were a fever that came and went a few times throughout the day, a bit of a sore throat, swollen eyelids, and joint pain.  In the past, I've experienced far, far worse so I was pretty happy and confident that this would pass relatively quickly. I was wrong.  The other night, I noticed that my sinuses were hurting.  I assumed they were hurting because they were so dry after many days of taking cold medications.  I had been taking cold medications since returning from Manhattan so I thought that perhaps the cold medications dried out my sinuses.  My plan was to stop taking the cold medications and use my saline nasal solution four times a day rather

S heila and I kept a few things about our plans for our time in Manhattan a surprise for Lukey and Kenzie.  One of these surprises was that, unbeknownst to Lukey and Kenzie, we had previously purchased tickets to visit not just the common observation deck but the 80th, 86th and 102nd floors of the Empire State Building which includes the topmost small, enclosed observation deck.   When we surprised these two grandchildren with this Christmas trip back on Halloween (see this blog post ), one of the many tickets we had gifted to them was for the Empire State Building.  At the time, we made it clear that, unfortunately, we would not have time to go up to the observation deck because it will be the busy Christmas season with long lines so it would take up far too much of our valuable time.  Regardless, they still seemed excited to be seeing this monumental building from the street.  I put their minds at ease explaining that, at the very least, we could see what the lobby looks like just li