Life Updates

Time has been flying by, as it tends to. I intended to write this life update post back in June, but surprise, you’re getting it in August. (This seems to be a trend.)

It’s been a summer of needing to lean on some friends for support. That’s always a good, if sometimes tough, exercise. In May, I was driving to a doctor’s appointment when all of the dashboard lights came on, including the battery light. That’s never a good sign. Turning off my headlights seemed to resolve it for a couple minutes, but then it happened again. The steering also got stiff like I’d lost power steering. Definitely concerning while I was driving on the highway, though thankfully I was close to my exit.

I exited and had the quick thought that I should pull over and try to restart before I got to the parking garage. If the battery was dead or something, I didn’t want to be stuck in a parking garage. I pulled over, turned it off, and sure enough, it wouldn’t start again. No engine turnover and just the clicking sound. I was pretty sure the battery was dead or maybe the alternator.

I got to use my relatively new AAA membership for the first time. They got there pretty quickly and confirmed it was the alternator. I got it towed to a nearby shop in La Mesa and took a Lyft home. Joe graciously drove me back the next day to pick it up.

A couple weeks later I woke up with some pretty bad pain in my ankle when I walked on it. I was pretty sure it was tendinitis. I rested and elevated it, but it didn’t seem to be getting better, so on day three I asked Joe if he’d help me by taking me to urgent care. Urgent care prescribed me some prednisone, stretching exercises, and icing, which all helped a lot. I’ve had a couple reoccurrences since then, but not for long or as intense. The doctor told me doing these stretches daily for just 5 minutes can have a big impact.

Heartbox 3.0

The appointment I missed was a preliminary to schedule surgery to replace my pacemaker. (Oh yeah, if you’re new around here you might not know I have a pacemaker.) It was replaced in 2014 and was nearing the end of its battery life. Unfortunately, missing the appointment ended up pushing everything back, but I still had plenty of time. It’s a pretty routine, outpatient surgery and I’ve been through it a couple times now, so I wasn’t really concerned about that. I was more concerned about catching COVID or some other airborne virus in the hospital, since unfortunately so few healthcare workers wear respirators these days.

I asked Joe if he would drive me and also help advocate for me. Specifically, I wanted to make sure that once I was out of surgery, they put a respirator back on me. I intended to bring it up with the nurses the day of, but I wasn’t sure what type of reception that would receive. I was grateful to have him in my corner.

Aside/rant
It’s baffling to me that every time I go in to my cardiologist, he and most of the nurses are unmasked (previously). At the preliminary meeting, I brought up that I’d like them to put a respirator mask on me once I was out of surgery. Thankfully he was accommodating and said they could, but then he said some minimizing things that were frustrating. “I actually haven’t seen much of it [COVID] lately.” I had to kind of shrug and say that there’s new variants going around (people are calling this one “razor blade throat”) and I really didn’t want to risk catching it. He followed up asking if I’d had the vaccines. I told him I’ve had every one I was eligible for and am up to date. He affirmed that was good, then added right before he left the room, “I stopped after four... but maybe it’s time to get boosted.” I didn’t even know what to say. Yes, people should get boosted if they can, while we even still have these vaccines. Damn RFK, Jr. (but that’s yet another rant).

Focus, gRegor. Back to the story.

On the day of the surgery, I wore an N95 and brought another couple individually-wrapped masks. I explained to the nurse what I wanted and there was brief confusion where she asked “are you sick now?” I had to explain that I wasn’t and I was being cautious. Thankfully, they were accommodating as well. When they wheeled me into the operating room, the first thing they mentioned was my request. The doctors also seemed confused and asked if I was sick, so I gave the same explanation. 😩

However, it worked out pretty well. As they were getting ready, they suggested they didn’t even have to take the mask off and could put the oxygen on underneath it. So that was awesome and I woke up still wearing the mask, as intended.

When they released me, they recommended that I not be alone that afternoon while the sedatives wore off. I wasn’t too concerned about it, but decided to be cautious and took Joe up on his offer to chill on his couch the rest of the day. I appreciated his flexibility since that hadn’t been the initial plan. I rested at his place the rest of the day and everything went smoothly. We got some Thai takeout that night and watched some Wallace and Gromit, which is always fun.

Fast forward a bit and recovery has gone smoothly with no issues. And no infections from the hospital! Respirators work. 😷💛

My latest adventure was getting a flat tire. I was still healing up, so I got to lean on some friends from a mutual aid group to help me switch out the spare tire. When I went to get the tire replaced (it was flat-flat), I learned that all my tires were quite overdue. I knew it had been quite a while, but didn’t realize it had been over ten years. I’m glad that flat happened while I was parked in my neighborhood and not on the highway.