August 7: one bump, holding steady

Tuesday night and there is NOTHING on TV!! Even History channel has nothing. I have decided to return to the classics for a while and have started Jane Austen's "Emma". I also need to start doing my scrapbooking in the family vacation book--I'm three years behind!

I've started walking on the treadmill. This makes my decision to enclose the porch during a financially uncertain timeframe more justified. I just can't breathe in the heat and humidity. But I can walk on the treadmill in front of a fan, further helped by my contractor putting up the ceiling fan this weekend. So, my major physical exertion is now walking for 10 mins at 1.6 mph, which equals about .30 of a mile. Pretty pathetic, huh?! I tried to walk 12 mins yesterday, but got dizzy and lightheaded. I want to start trying to do twice a day, but just the 10 minutes for now. Start slow.

My bloodwork was going well, but I must not have eaten as many salads last week. My blood is now very thin, so another reason to stay in and try not to hurt myself. Bleeding now would be very, very bad. (For the medical types: my INR is 7.0, I'm supposedto be about 3.0) So no coumadin for the next several nights, then labwork on Friday again. I'm hoping that my insurance company will see that I am difficult to control (anyone surprised?!) and give me one of the machines that you can test your own levels. It's like a glucometer for monitoring. In further good news, my hemoglobin is staying about 11 gms, so it looks like I don't have to have a hysterectomy now.

While I still have chest pain, it is definitely better than last week. Not as bad when sleeping, either. Now if I could just get to bed at a more reasonable hour!

Thanks for checking, Laurie

P.S. to Carol: I'm controlling myself so far!!