crisis

I'm telling this without asking him if he minds. Because right now, I don't really fucking care if he minds. (edit: I wrote this a week ago, he has since said no restrictions.)

Pneumonia. Of course it's way more complicated than that. This is a man who comes from a line of folk who are generally healthy and long lived. This is also a man who joined me in an artistic pursuit that did not offer the benefit of health insurance. This is a man who wouldn't have gone to the doctor anyway even if he had had insurance. This is a 71 year old man who had only been to the doctor a handful of times in over 40 years. And not once since getting on medicare, health insurance for the first time in our working lives. A lifelong smoker whose part of the creative process was sandblasting and plaster/silica mold making, who did use reasonable precautions whose breathing and lungs have been compromised for 6, 7 years? We all assumed it was from work, this state of his lungs but it turns out not so much. Turns out it is primarily because of his smoking. And I base that opinion on conversations with the doctors. It may change when he gets released from the hospital and starts going to a PC and a lung specialist but immediate diagnosis...entire left lung infected with pneumonia. Secondary diagnosis emphysema in both lungs from smoking, no obvious evidence of silicosis. The doctors in the hospital are concerned with getting rid of the pneumonia, the emphysema falls to the primary care physician or specialist. Cure the infection, then deal with the rest.

This is what I think, that Marc was feeling bad enough to quit smoking (4^th try, nicotine is heinous) about 5 weeks ago which he never bothered to mention until he started to crash the first weekend in February. He started to feel bad the last week of January, appetite sort of deserted him. By February 1st feeling worse. By the 3^rd looked terrible and increasingly breathless, would still not entertain the idea of going to a doctor, clinic, or hospital no matter how many times I suggested it. Saturday the 4th felt scared enough to say he would call a doctor on Monday. Dude, he's just going to tell you to go to the hospital. Sunday could barely sit up, very labored breathing, instability, pain when coughing, mental fogginess, and the cherry on top, incontinence and still refusing to get help. Called our daughter to come back me up...you can get in the car or I can call an ambulance. Those are your choices.

He got in the car.

By the time we got to the emergency room of the hospital in Bay City, he could barely get out of the car into a wheelchair. Sarah wheeled him in while I parked the car. They were on him like a duck on a june bug, wheeled him back to triage before he was even completely registered. Seemed like half a dozen nurses and techs swarmed in and were hooking him up 9 ways to Sunday...oxygen, IVs, checking vitals, starting fluids, drawing blood, X-ray and CAT scan, EKG, and with the first blood test result, low kidney function. The doctor came in before they were even finished hooking him all up, quizzing Sarah and I. Before he sent him off for the chest X-ray he said 'Don't know what we will find, but it won't be good.

Well, we already knew that.

The doctor came back after the X-ray, his entire left lung was encased in infection, basically completely whited out in the X-ray but the CAT scan did not show a mass hiding under the infection, about the only good news of the day.

As soon as they had all that done they took him to the ICU.

More to come.

finally feeling well and bastard squirrels

Lack of energy and snot. This has been my life the past week. Slept well enough Thursday night and Friday morning I think I'm on the mend but I've thought that before. We'll see.

It occurred to me the other day that I can plant some winter vegetables in the place where the zinnias were since I won't plant anything else there until spring when the zinnia seeds go in. So the plan is to go to the feed store for plants. Maybe even get the leaves moved today. And wash the 'honey dew' off the car...again. It has been just terrible the last month. Everything under the pecan trees and crepe myrtles is covered with the sticky stuff. The ground has been so sticky that leaves and gravel stick to the bottom of my sandals. Apparently this stuff is exuded by aphids up in the trees. If so there must be millions of the little suckers up there.

Worked outside for about 40 minutes on Friday, dug up and potted five porterweed volunteers and then turned the dirt where I plan to put in some broccoli and cauliflower and some pole beans. That cold front didn't last, already in the low 80s and that was all the outside work I did Friday as I came in hot and sweaty and out of motivation. I did hose off the car and the truck after I got back from taking the dog for a walk.

Today, Saturday, I finally feel well, not completely well but almost there. Well enough to go to the market and get the microgreens for me and tamales for Marc and stop at the feed store for cauliflower plants (my neighbor has some broccoli and cabbage sprouts for me) and come back with the plan to turn a bag of compost into the dirt where I plan to plant. Rather than carry the 40+/- pound bag of compost I thought I would use the garden cart but first I had to empty the garden cart onto the burn pile and on my way to the burn pile I passed the monster rose bush with the thought to prune away enough rose canes to be able to get to the hackberry tree growing up in the middle and then I saw a pecan tree so cut some more and another hackberry and more pecans and virginia creeper and one thing led to another until I had pruned all the way around clearing it from the ground up to about 18”. I emptied the cart and left two huge piles of rose bush prunings to attend to tomorrow because by now I was hot and sweaty and tired and had probably already exerted myself more than intended. I bet I cut off a third of the growth and it's still a monstrous bush. No before picture but as thick as the foliage is at the top, it was that thick all the way to the ground. You can see the big hackberry poking up from the top in the middle.

There must be at least a dozen trees of various size under there. Tomorrow I'm going to cut them out and treat the stumps with stump killer so hopefully they don't come back.

And that bastard squirrel. I looked up and he was ON the bird feeder under the hood. Chased him off. Wasn't too long before it was back. I took these pictures through the glass in the door and it's hard to see with the glare/reflection but he's actually made it onto the bird feeder.

OK, so the hood over the bird feeder doesn't work. Now I need to find a pole that I can mount the bird feeder on and put the hood underneath. Surely they can't get around that!

I am not a happy camper

Turns out I was not getting well on Tuesday even though I slept well on Monday night. In some ways I didn't feel any better than the day before. The pain in my face was gone, my nose dried up but I never made it to the grocery store. I went back to bed and took a nap instead. I was a little achy, a little tired, stomach a little funky. Didn't get the leaves spread out either and took another nap in the afternoon and that's very unusual for me, I hardly ever take naps and never two in one day.

Could have taken a third nap but I had to fix dinner instead which was a simple Italian sausage removed from its casing, crumbled, and cooked on the stove with onions and garlic, pre-cooked egg noodles and raw spinach added in til the spinach wilted.

I slept all right the first half of Tuesday night but not so much the second half. Wednesday I felt good enough to be functional. Went to the grocery store, did the dishes, took the dog for a walk finally and she wanted the long walk, though I didn't have the energy to go to yoga. The weather has been really glorious, cool, dry, blue sky days that warm up. So of course I assumed I would feel at least as well today if not better and maybe I would have if I didn't spend four consecutive busy hours filling baskets at SHARE this morning because this afternoon I have done nothing but read and take a little nap and sneeze and blow my nose. I am not getting better. I still don't think it's allergies or a sinus infection since my sinuses haven't hurt since the first day and I can breathe easily or the flu because I think I would be much sicker and it's not covid because I have tested myself three times and it's always negative. So that leaves the common cold and I'm ready to be done with that thank you very much.

My sister brought me orange and yellow marigolds to cheer me up. She's thoughtful like that.

The morning glory bush is blooming. Usually it blooms about twice a year, spring and fall but it didn't bloom this spring. It is now and it's one of my favorites. 

roulette of the nose, yard work, blooming stuff

Saturday and Sunday, both still hot, all I got accomplished Saturday was getting the rest of the monkey grass planted 

and getting the oxblood lily bulbs that I bought last spring in the ground. Sunday I woke with a bit of a runny nose and a scratchy throat which I ignored and after breakfast I swept the garage and raked the leaves on the concrete apron of the driveway, the rest of which is gravel, into three big piles and then I tackled the barn raking and sweeping the leaves out and neatening it up, getting it ready for leaf season. 

before

after

The oaks and maple and tallows and pecans will start losing their leaves in earnest now.

I was going to spread the three piles of leaves out on the areas where grass doesn't grow on Monday but by Sunday evening I knew I was getting sick, whether it was allergies (which I really don't suffer from), a cold, the flu, or covid I wasn't sure and I didn't sleep well Sunday night, basically had to try and sleep sitting up. The whole right side of my face hurt from my eyeball to my jaw. Monday morning I got out one of the covid test kits that government sent us all on request and it came out negative but according to the package it had expired at the end of July. So I went to the pharmacy and got 4 current test kits, came home, swabbed my nostrils again and still negative. Took some ibuprofen and a benadryl cold medicine knock off and basically laid around in bed all day reading and by evening was feeling better.

cat at my feet

dog at my shoulder

This morning I feel almost well, on the tail end of whatever bug took up residence in my nose. I tried to think where I could have picked it up. SHARE on Thursday and yoga that evening, I think I went to the Evil Empire on Friday but wore a mask, Saturday I went to the Market for honey and tamales and only chatted with three people and then went to the Earth Lab talk at Hesed House on edible native plants. Everyone seemed well so who knows where I picked it up. I'm glad it was just one of those 48 hour things and weird that it only affected half my face.

I think there must have been some squirrel attempts to get to the bird feeder under the hood because I looked out there yesterday and the yellow butterfly ginger was practically laying on the ground. They do lean towards the sun but were more upright so it looks like some squirrel or two went sliding off the hood and onto the ginger underneath. I would have liked to see that.

We got our first real cold front which came in last night. It was only 56˚ at 9 AM and is supposed to get down to 40˚ tonight. It will start warming almost immediately but we'll have a week or more of really nice days. No rain though. Still dry as a bone. I have to do the weekly grocery shop today and fix dinner tonight but I'm going to try and get the three leaf piles spread out in between.

Allright, I need to get going so here's what's blooming...

Firespike among the ginger.

Confederate rose blooms high up, must be 10' (the picture was so dark I had to tinker with it so the colors are a little weird).

Orange cosmos putting on its display.

White phillipine lily doing the same.

 

I guess I bragged about never getting sick one too many times

I know better than to invoke the gods. 

Last Friday morning I felt a tickle in my nose and a little scratchiness in my throat and that night it hammered me. Saturday was a misery, today better so I have high hopes for tomorrow. As long as I sit or lay still on the couch, I can breathe fairly well. As soon as I stand up and move around I'm totally congested. As if I have the energy to stand up and move around. I finished my book so it's been solitaire and internet and dozing and TV.

Monday...today I feel so much better, well enough to have to tackle the kitchen, the chore I have been ignoring for three days, where just about every surface is covered with dirty dishes. I'd take a picture but it's embarrassing. I also need to water the front yard and cut the grass in the Little Backyard. Right now I watching a wren groom itself, scratching and stretching and fluffing it's feathers sitting in the chinese fringe flower tree right outside my window. Yesterday, sitting here briefly, I was gazing out the window at the photinia about 30' away when a red shouldered hawk came out of nowhere, diving at a medium sized bird, probably a white wing dove, sitting in the photinia. The smaller bird took off with the hawk in hot pursuit swooping low over the Little Backyard and turtle tank, taking a hard left and continuing across the side of my absent neighbor's yard and out of sight. Both birds with the same motive, preservation of life.

I took pictures of the wren but it just looks like a blurry brown spot so instead here's a picture of the rangoon creeper blooming against the blue sky.