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Glasses
A couple years ago, I saw an optometrist and I got some new glasses but they were only for computer use. My regular multifocal lenses weren’t working for the middle distance of a computer screen. So I’ve been switching out when I’m using my laptop since then. This has mostly worked except that I sometimes would forget to switch back. Anyway, I was overdue to an eye appointment so popped in last week while I had some free time.
I forgot about taking my computer glasses so I couldn’t have them checked for the prescription. The optometrist spent a long time examining my old glasses. He noted they were really scratched. Funny but I didn’t notice it until he mentioned this. I’ve had them for probably five or six or maybe even seven years so that shouldn’t be too surprising, especially since I have knocked them off the night table next to my bed on a regular basis. For that alone, I needed new lenses. Anyway, my prescription has changed so I was off to see the optician just after. There were three tiers of multifocal lenses so I went for the top one as I had never been able to read well with the old ones. I usually had to remove my glasses to read.
My new glasses arrived today and I picked them up soon after I got my notification. I immediately could see better in that everything looked sharper. I suppose lack of scratches could do that alone. :) I have also noted that it seems I can read with these so the days of moving my glasses off and on might just be over. Alas they are of limited value at the computer, which isn’t unexpected. I will continue to use the special pair for that and I keep the old glasses in the car for future needs. Even overly scratched they will suit my needs for driving. One other thing I noticed is I didn’t feel all weird when looking around like I have in the past. It was quite a bit more money but it seems the premium will be worth it. I do wonder how many years these will last.
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Pilates
In the last few years I’ve had issues enough that I see my physiotherapist reasonably often. Well, the past few months it’s been quite often as I have had one issue after another. A few weeks ago it was suggested I try the clinical pilates classes they offer so I decided to give it a go. I had to attend an assessment session first but I’ve now gone to two classes and it’s been quite interesting. I have used some of the machines in the regular appointments but it’s quite different using them for a whole hour. The first week the exercises weren’t too difficult although a couple really brought on a muscle burn. This week they have ramped up a couple to more difficulty. The worst one is standing on a bosu ball for balance. I can stand on the flat side and let go but balancing on the ball side was a bit too hard when I was there this morning.
I also said I wanted to work on my abdominal muscles as they tend to be pretty weak much of the time. I can’t help thinking it will be beneficial to get that toned up a bit. It might make a different in my swimming when I one day get back to lessons.
I’m scheduled for ten sessions and then we will see how I am doing and reassess my needs. I will likely take a break at that point since I can’t afford to do it through the year. But it’s nice to have this option available to me.
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Getting better
It’s been weeks and weeks now and I am still coughing. But it’s much better than it’s been and it’s been awhile since I woke up coughing in the night. I am still unsure where I had a viral thing or not. Turns out I was in contact with someone who became ill just a couple days before I started coughing. Another mutual friend also has been ill for weeks with a chest infection and was also coughing a lot. It seems terribly coincidental. I don’t know if a couple days is long enough to incubate a virus of that sort or not. I was coughing up a lot of thick sputum early on but it’s not like that at all now. So maybe this has been an infection of some sort, possibly viral.
I did see a doctor a week and a half ago and my lungs were clear, so if there had been something, that part was gone. Maybe by this time it was more of a post-viral cough that was being affected by reflux? Who knows? That was a strange doctor visit. I made an appointment rather late so didn’t get to see my regular doctor. The one I saw was new to me and I found her a bit strange in her manner. It was one of those cases where I felt like I was expected to do all the work of figuring things out. In the end she gave me a prescription for paracetamol with codeine (Tylenol 3, in essence) to help me sleep. That turned out badly and my reflux got really bad the one night I tried that. It was painful and while I did sleep eventually it was very broken due to the reflux. I stopped that immediately. I have more to say about this doctor in a separate post.
I went out on a bike ride a couple days ago and I was exhausted by the time I got home . To be fair I kind of overdid things by taking too long a ride. But I was desperate to get out and I don’t regret going out…just doing too much.
Today I am going back to my swimming lessons. I’m still coughing but I think it will be okay and hopefully the exercise will be just enough to make me feel better. And to get back to learning the butterfly stroke.
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Spring cycling
I hadn’t been out on my bike much lately due to a tube that had exploded and hadn’t been replaced. Happily the Scientist sorted this out for me. But then I noticed the back tire was looking bare so I went to the bike shop to see about new tires. I had been going to the shop where I bought the bike but it’s just a bit hard to reach and it’s even harder to get home unless the Scientist drives to the shop to get me. The current shop is in Morley, which I can ride to within forty minutes and also there is a bus that goes directly to and from our area. I dropped the bike off and picked it up the next day. I’d wanted to get a service too, but it was school holiday time and they were really busy. So I booked it in for last Thursdays.
Meanwhile I took my bike out for a proper ride for the first time this spring and it was a good ride. I made sure to avoid overdoing things. I turned around after forty-five minutes and came back just in time for sunset, which looked pretty cool. This ride was particularly nice because it went into new territory on a path that opened recently along new stretches of widened highway.The only negative for me was the fact that it became clear that my intention of riding to Midland along this path was going to take a lot longer than I intended. I’m not sure how much shorter the trip is from the previous ways of getting there. I never quite reached the goal and the trip took over an hour before. Hopefully I will get fit enough to do a longer ride and have a break in the middle in the next month or two.
So the bike went into the shop last week and then I didn’t hear from them for a couple days. I tried to phone but only got an answering machine. Then On Monday I called again and it was ready so I was able to collect it and ride home.
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Testing
I am way behind on posts and now can’t recall things I wanted to post about. So I will start with recent stuff and work backwards, if I can remember.
On Sunday I started getting a croaky voice and a bit of a cough. This just continued over the next couple of days. I suspected it might be allergy related but wasn’t sure. I was at an event on Friday and two others there were also sick on Tuesday so I worried there might be a connection. Anyway, the public health notices say to get a covid-19 test if you have fever or cough or flu like symptoms. Yesterday I was still coughing a lot so I went down to the hospital clinic and got tested. The process was pretty quick overall. My only complaint was there was nobody at the table next to the entry when I got there. I had walked well into the area before I was noticed. I assume this is not the norm for the clinic. The guy who greeted me gave me a mask to wear (the first I’ve worn!) and then another person came up and asked questions before leading me into the waiting area. There were only a couple people there when I arrived. I waited for ten or fifteen minutes after filling out a questionnaire and then was seen by one of the staff. Soon afterwards I had the dreaded swabs of which the nostrils were really uncomfortable. The throat swab didn’t bother me at all. I was given instructions to go straight home and self isolate.
And that’s what I did. I ended up missing work and a luncheon I was supposed to attend but I didn’t want to take risks. I was pretty sure this is allergy and/or reflux-related so I had major doubts about being contagious. Self isolating from the rest of the family went okay, I guess. I still did a few things in the house but mostly stayed in the bedroom the rest of the day and night. This morning I got a text from the health department saying I tested negative. Phew! I was almost totally sure this wasn’t covid-19 but now I have proof. It was a relief getting my results less than a day later. But it’s a shame I had to change my mammogram appointment that was today. There’s no way I could have been sure to have my results so soon though. My mammogram is now on November 17th.
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Aches and pains update
I am happy to report my shoulder is mostly better now. I must admit I haven’t been doing the physio exercises quite as much as I should. I am doing them just less consistently than I can. I suspect when I next try to swim it will be fine so here’s hoping.
Meanwhile, my plan to go out on a bike ride on the weekend was thwarted when my inner tube burst. It was warm and pleasant and would have been perfect for a winter ride. Alas it wasn’t meant to be and I still need to get a replacement so I can use my bike again.
Since I couldn’t go that way I decided to tackle some of the jungle of the back and side yards. Weeds and grass had grown quite high but I hadn’t mowed due to lack of dry days. Our mower is electric powered so I need to be careful of that. While it wasn’t totally try, it was enough to work on it. I spent a couple hours, at least trying to clear stuff out. Much of my time was spent pulling out the weeds. I neglected to use gloves at first so now I’m dealing with prickle injuries from some of the weeds. Some of them look a lot like whitehead pimples although they don’t hurt or itch. Just look kind of iffy. At the end I cleared out quite a large area and it looks so much better now. We actually have space to move and now the dogs have less excuse to do their business on the patio…although they seem to be stuck in those bad habits at the moment so will have to be vigilant and stop them doing that.
So the next day I had a lot of pain in my big toe on the right foot. I have regular issues with toe pain, usually at night and I attribute this to arthritis pains. Well this time it got much worse than usual and just walking was painful. I bought some Voltaren (generic version) cream and later took some painkillers. It didn’t totally go away but was much better. It’s still more irritated than usual several days later but not painful like it was. My guess is I aggravated the problem while doing the garden work. And/or it flared up coincidentally. Or maybe a bit of both.
There were a couple other issues that caused a fair amount of problem but I won’t go into that here. Just to say that I need to plan ahead a bit more in the future.
Yes, this is one of those woe is me posts. I guess it doesn’t help that my anxiety is so bad due to the stress of dealing with family. I do know it will all pass but it’s just the getting through it that needs to be done.
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Aches and pains
In the last few weeks I’ve had quite a few aches and pains that were notable. The first one was some lower abdominal, possibly pelvic pain on the left side. It wasn’t constant but it recurred enough that I would have sought out a doctor’s opinion. Then it had disappeared. Next was the lump that appeared in my armpit and didn’t cause any pain although was later irritable to touch. That one also disappeared.
A couple weeks ago I was swimming and afterwards I was really quite sore, such that I wasn’t up to practicing more during the week. Most of the pain was along my shoulder/neck area and I figured it would go away after a few days. There was a shift in the pain and soon it was all about tenderness along my collarbone and that is something I’ve not had before. Last Monday I was at the doctor for other reasons and I mentioned the above issues even thought two had already resolved. She suggested I wait and see what happened on that as this too seemed to be resolving. I only mentioned it because I was already there.
Meanwhile I had made an appointment with my physiotherapist and then cancelled as I didn’t think I needed it. This was all done online. I was called by the receptionist/front desk manager and I mentioned that it had seemed to be gone but then it was back again. So another appointment was made for Thursday morning. By this time the pain seemed to be mostly gone again so I wasn’t sure whether it was worth going or not. But I dragged myself out that morning and went in and it turns out I had an AC sprain in my shoulder. And some movement were actually painful and I had weakness in some movements too. She sent me away after a painful massage and some exercises to do until Monday. So I’ve been doing these exercises and find my hand gets numb while doing them so have to spread them out. It’s not too time-consuming and two of them involve stretches that actually feel pretty good. Three days later my should is feeling better and times and not better. It seems to be hurting more today than it’s been. Apparently it’s a grade one injury and should get better in a few weeks.
I forgot to write about the previous injury. It’s usually caused by a fall or running into another person as might happen in playing a football game or similar. I obviously haven’t done that nor have I fallen down. But there’s a bit of a niggle of a memory that I ran into a corner in the house once not too long ago and it hurt a lot at the time. But then I forgot about it until later. I thought it was the swimming that set this off but it seems that might have just aggravated it. So that’s my theory and I’m sticking to it! :D
On top of all that, I’ve had a stomach bug or something since Friday. The Scientist and I had plans for yesterday but had to cancel as I wasn’t up to going out. Even today I stayed home from a lunch at my MIL’s place. I am better but my stomach is still quite sore and I really don’t want to pass along anything contagious. So I’m alone at home with the dogs.
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Half a year gone
Hard to believe but half the year has gone by and it seems like just yesterday I was having a birthday. During lockdown it seemed time went quite slowly sometimes and other times it was just speeding past.
Here in Western Australia we are still quite fortunate and have reached stage 4 restrictions. We still have limits on numbers to stadiums and such but life is certainly close to being normal here. Our borders are still in hard lockdown and it looks like it might be some time for that change. It was due to move to stage 5 on the 18th but that has been put back to due to spikes in cases in Victoria and to a lesser extent in New South Wales. Now the plan is to move to stage 5 on the 1st of August. So we continue in our rather large-ish bubble in WA. International travel is likely some time off although it’s possible we will extend the bubble to New Zealand which has been mostly covid-19 free for a while now.
My swimming lessons restarted a few weeks ago. The first lesson back was quite a mess for me. I felt like I couldn’t do anything I had learned. But I was doing much better the following classes and I’m even improving on my breast stroke kick.
My exercise has been up and down. This past week I’ve done limited exercise but the couple weeks before I did much better. Overall, I think I’m doing far better than last winter but I could be better. I’ve got plans to do some swimming this evening along with tomorrow’s lesson and some swimming on Wednesday when I go to the pool with my client.
Our tai chi classes are back to meeting in person again and it’s so much better now. We got going again the last week of term and now it’s term break. However we are doing workshops during the break so we’re still attending and for longer hours.
One of the things I missed out on earlier this year was the opportunity to get my Animal Crossing Switch when it was released. I had no idea it would sell out so quickly and there weren’t restocks happening in Australia. But that changed late last month when new stock was announced for Australia and I managed to pre-order one for release on the 10 of July. Happily my order worked out and was deliver on the day and I am quite pleased. It’s rather expensive but I’m a long time lover of the Animal Crossing franchise and if ever I would buy one of these, this is the one to get. Even the box is quite lovely and it likely will be the only one in this how to be kept in the long term. Now we have consoles available for each family member and can play against each other. Lego Lover has the lite version of the console and the rest of us have the regular one which can be used with the tv. I had just about given up hope of getting one when the new stock was announced so I guess I was quite lucky in that.
Another thing that we are back to is organised games nights with our friends. At first we were taking a lot of precautions but since community transmission here has been zero, we have relaxed quite a bit. On the 4th, we had a special 4th of July day with special food and decorations for the day. It was more than our family normally does and we had such a good time together. It really helped to improve moods among us to be close with people we care about.
I am so frustrated to see the situation back home and to see people I care about about carrying on about wearing masks and the whole hoax conspiracy stuff. So far nobody close to me has got this but I worry that it’s a matter of time.
And who knows when I will get back to see my family. I imagine it might be still another year and a half before chances of getting back to the US is possible. And that’s only if the leadership actually changes since the current leadership is so lacking.
Well, I guess I have rambled on enough for this post. I am going to try to update on a few more things in the next week or so.
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Freedom
We are currently in stage three of lockdown. What this means is most businesses are now open and we are that bit closer to normal life. Except it will likely still be a while until we have to stop physically distancing.
Our state currently has 21 cases of covid-19 still ongoing with none in the hospital. None of these were community transmissions so I am feeling safer to be out in the community now. The current cases mostly came from a ship that came into port a couple of weeks ago. The others are people who came back to WA from overseas. All the current cases have been quarantined in a hotel while they recover.
My swimming lessons will be back in session the week after next. I haven’t tried to swim yet even though the pools opened a couple of weeks ago. Once I got notice the lessons were about to restart, I decided to hold off on getting one of the special temporary memberships. At the moment you have to book in to the pool and there are limits on how many people can be at the pool at the same time. I did go to the pool with my client through work but only got in to do walking in the water and didn’t get my head wet. At the time the change rooms weren’t available so it wasn’t ideal. But the weather has been unusually warm for the start of winter so it wasn’t too bad. Now the change rooms are available so it is far more useful even though the weather is still rather warm. (We still have windows open here as it’s not been cold enough long enough to close them.)
I haven’t felt confident enough to even consider going to any of the protests in the city though. I’m not sure how well they did the distancing at the previous ones but I feel it’s just too risky at the moment. I heard today there was a man at the Melbourne protest who was just diagnosed. I hope it hasn’t spread to others who were there. I guess we will find out more in the next week or two.
I forgot to add that the Scientist and I went out to eat at a restaurant on our anniversary (May 22) for the first time since before my birthday. It was a lovely evening and it was good to see restaurants more properly open again.
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Milestone reached
I can officially claim I have reached menopause as of Monday. My last period started a year ago on the 8th of June and lasted about a day and nothing since. It’s kind of weird to think I am there finally. I still have a menstrual cup and a few disposable supplies but it feels not quite right to get rid of them just yet even though I shouldn’t be having anything else at this point. I wonder how long it will be until I am ready to do that…
I am supposed to get some bone density tests done now since osteoporosis runs in my family. There’s probably more I need to have checked but I will talk to my doctor about it on my next visit.