28 September 2023
Yesterday, I managed a walk, yoga stretches and to swim laps. I didn’t do my usual 100 strokes of the breast stroke – too out of breath but at least I got the rest of the exercise in. I felt really good for the day after an infusion and my energy level was up.
I made it to Walgreens to pick up the muscle relaxer prescribed by Dr. Velez and it cost me all of $0.27. I kinda hated to use a credit card but to be honest, they prefer it to making change.
The rest of the afternoon was spent working the kinks out of the new computer. One problem I finally solved was decommissioning the old computer and iPad with McAfee Antivirus and adding the new computer and new iPad. McAfee requires you to contact them personally to do this but once I got an agent on the phone it went pretty smoothly – except-they always have some issue that needs to be resolved with an Apple product.
In this particular case, I have a McAfee alert notice that appears on my computer screen and will not go away. The agent promised me the technical team is working on it and will soon have a solution. That’s not gonna happen. I had an issue with them before with the old computer that anytime you loaded McAfee is told you the fire guard was not engaged although it was. That never went away either. Still, I had rather have McAfee as an extra layer of security with the Apple security features.
Today I need to work with Apple to make sure my Apple Watch works with my old phone number. It’s nice to be able to answer phone calls on the Apple Watch instead of trying to pull your phone out of your pocket.
I did take a muscle relaxant last night and slept well (they make you drowsy). However, I feel very hung over this morning. I decided not to walk because I didn’t want to stagger around the neighborhood like the local drunk. If I’m up to it later, I’ll head to Walgreens to pick up another prescription. If it affects me so much the next morning, that will be one prescription to join the others that I no longer take due to side effects. I’m not sure it prevented any muscle spasms anyway.
As I wrote about before, I am building a collection of the Flora of North America. I just recently received two volumes and then I received duplicates. Apparently my standing order is still in effect even though there’s no way for me to check on that. In any case, I had to return one and now I need to return a second volume. Strangely, if you have a standing order for the volumes you get them later than if you order them directly online. In any case, I get to stand in line at the UPS store to return the second duplicate. Hopefully they will remember to credit my credit card for the amount.
Today is another dreary day in Fort Lauderdale, again with rain predicted. So far, it’s been every day this week with some of the downpours pretty heavy. Usually by September I’m having to add water to the pool so I should be happy I don’t. For some reason I received duplicate water bills yesterday. Duplicates seem to be standard for me these days with books and water bills. Hopefully, they’ll automatically deduct only one amount and not deduct both bills.
Poor Fort Lauderdale. It’s had its troubles lately when someone fooled them into paying invoices of $1.2 million dollars in a phishing scam. Of course, everyone is standing in a circle and pointing fingers at each other as to whose responsibility it was. The annual budget is for $458 million so I guess $1.2 million isn’t too bad. I think they caught the scam in enough time to recoup some of the funds.
Thursdays have become days waiting on hydration sessions on Fridays, much like Mondays have become waiting days for chemo infusions. At least, I have more scheduled now and I’ve got all 9 sessions on the calendar for Taxol. I’ve also been scheduled through January of next year for Herceptin and have an echocardiogram on October 5th to check my heart from the effects of Herceptin.
I really cannot tell whether I’m adapting well to the chemotherapy or not. Some days are really good and some weeks are really bad. I do seem to have a good team in the surgeon, Dr. Burgers, Dr. Velez and the Nurse Navigator Kathy. I also seem to have become a favorite of Mia, the Nutritionist who keeps giving me things to help with the diarrhea. Maybe I can weather the storm after all.
Stay tuned!