August 2014 Journaling
1. Happy Canada Day! I am working four
nights this week so we aren’t doing anything. Also we had our dinner party on
Saturday and then a bbq at my mother-in-law’s on Sunday.
2. Crazy busy at work. I definitely
earned my time and a half last night.
3. A box of books arrived at the door,
but I have no time on work days to even look at them. Argh! Maybe on the
weekend.
4. So excited to watch the World Cup
semi-final of Germany vs. France. Go Germany! Also ordering Japanese food for
dinner and then watching a Hall & Oates concert on t.v. with my usual date.
Oh, and Happy 4th of July to all my American friends and relatives.
5. The master plan is to spend this
whole day writing, working on finishing my novel. We’ll see how that works.
6. Yesterday I managed to write a scene
that had stymied me for quite a long time. It was about hand to hand combat and
since I don’t know anything about that I kept putting it off. I have just a few
scenes left to write but that was the hardest part. At church this morning,
some new friends we met at the Carey Conference last year were presenting their
upcoming missions work in Zambia. Then they came over for a bbq. I also made
homemade ice cream sandwiches in chocolate chip cookies.
7. Working three nights. It shouldn’t be
bad, except we are short staffed and so it will be a challenge.
8. Yay! Germany defeated Brazil quite
soundly 7-1 in the World Cup semi-final.
9. Argentina defeated the Dutch so they
will be playing against my team in the final on Sunday. Also, my fourth guest
column was published in Barnabas magazine. See below. This one was more
devotional than the other three.
10. Crazy night at work last night, very busy and
short-staffed. I felt overwhelmed with the stress and I made a sloppy mistake
in the last few minutes of my shift, but at least it was caught and no harm
done. Now on vacation for 18 days. I love summer vacation!
11. Went out for dinner this evening. Otherwise I
did laundry and grocery shopping. I also saw my family doctor. I got bloodwork
done and I have two specialists to see and a mammogram requisition.
12. My husband and I
went on a little trip to Camp X in Oshawa. It was a spy training camp in WWII.
It inspired the founder of the OSS, precursor to the CIA, and also Ian Fleming,
who created James Bond.
13. Church this morning, and the World Cup final
this afternoon. Whoo Hoo! Germany, my team won the World Cup! I am very happy.
14. On Vacation for two weeks, or rather,
stay-cation. We have a few day trips planned. Tonight I walked with the ladies
from our new? church. They have a walk and talk for an hour each Monday and
Thursday evening. There are three speeds of walkers and you pick a speed and
go. There were a dozen of us this time. Then we watched a documentary on Camp
X. Very interesting. It would have been nice to see it before we went there.
15. We went to the ROM to see the Forbidden City
exhibit. Also had lunch downtown.
16. I had a stress test done this morning. It’s on
a treadmill. The reason is I’ve had chest pain once or twice, at work. Is it
stress? I’m able to walk without pain so I doubt this will show anything, but
it’s all we can do for now. Then I baked two blueberry pies and we’re bringing
one when we visit our daughter and son-in-law this evening for dinner. They are
house-sitting. They told us to bring our bathing suits as there’s a pool, but
it’s a rainy afternoon, so we’ll probably pass.
17. Pay day; always a good day. Planning for a
beach day tomorrow with friends from our old church. The weather is meh, but it
will be nice to see them again.
18. Beach day today. Nice weather, very relaxing.
Nice to see friends from our old church.
19. We’re going to Stratford today to see King
Lear. I don’t know anything about the story, and I sometimes prefer that. It
was good, but I didn’t know it was a tragedy; a bit of a bummer.
20. Church today in the two places we’ve been
going to since we left Faith. The Pastors there are very supportive, although
we’re not always in the mood to talk about it. It hurts too much and we’d like
to move on. He encouraged us to take the high road when we are being slandered.
The tendency is to want to retaliate to clear our name. So hard.
21. Goal to finish my last few scenes this week so
I can finish my first draft. Our eldest is on a four day mission trip to Fort
Hope again this year. I got a call today from my doctor’s office saying I
needed to see a cardiologist asap and to go to the ER if I have chest or left
arm pain. I guess the chest pain I had a month ago was really cardiac pain.
Then the cardiologist called to book the appointment for Thursday, and then my
doctor left a message saying my stress test showed I had exercise induced significant
ST depression, which are changes on my ecg. Of course I looked it up and it
says it is diagnostic of clogged coronary arteries. Quite stressed out.
22. Trying another beach day today. There’s
nothing more relaxing than sitting by the water. We even went swimming.
23. Seemed more like a sick day than a vacation day. I woke up with chest pain,
went to emerg and had an urgent angiogram. Then developed my first migraine
headache post procedure. Good news is the chest pain isn't due to blocked
arteries. Now for more tests to find out what caused the ecg changes with the
stress test. Thankful for free healthcare, good news and a husband who was by
my side all day. The procedure itself was rather unpleasant. I could feel the
wire in my heart and it kinda freaked me out. Then they clamped me down to the
stretcher with a vise. It made me cry. One of the worst parts for sure. Then
following the procedure I had such severe pain in my head. Not sure if it was
my first migraine but my right temple was throbbing for hours. It was unlike
the facial nerve pain. This was unbearable. Thankfully, I had two tablets of a
stronger painkiller left over from my surgery, so it eventually took care of it.
As soon as I learn my heart is okay, my head is not. Arrgh! Is there no end to
my health issues?
24. I saw the cardiologist today. At least he had
the results of my test from yesterday. So he said, “I can’t say what it is, but
I can say what it isn’t.” So basically, when I have this ache in my heart, I
can be assured that since I’ve had the gold standard test of an angiogram
already, and they know there is no blockage at all, I don’t have to worry that
I am having a heart attack. He also said the changes on the stress test are
consistent with women at my age and since it didn’t result in chest pain at the
time, it’s not anything to worry about. Then he asked if I have had any recent
stress. I said, yes, about the time that the first pain happened. It appears
that leaving our church has caused a literal heartache. My heart has broken.
25. Although our 28th anniversary is
tomorrow, we’re going out to eat at the
Keg tonight. I have a gift card from my birthday to offset the cost. This
morning I’ve been researching some narratives in the Bible for my last few
scenes. I wrote a scene with Absalom showing his vanity. Then when we went out
to dinner, we had to leave early because I had my third migraine in three days.
26. Doctor’s appointment today to update her on
the cardiac issues, then I told her about the migraines. She ordered a
treatment rather than a prevention. We’ll see. Shopping and mani-pedis with my
youngest. She’ll be gone in a month to law school and we’ll be empty nesters.
Then I held off one migraine, but another hit later. It takes 7 hours out of my
day, while I lie down and put ice on my head and hope it will pass. The
medicine isn’t working very well.
27. Church this morning, and a migraine hit as
soon as we got there. Forty five minutes of visual aura, then headache. After a
few hours of rest till it passed, we played croquet. When my daughter heard we
bought it and played it, she said, “What are they, retired?” I said, “Ha, ha,
we laughed so hard our dentures almost fell out.” Five migraines in five days.
What will I do when it’s time to go back to work tomorrow night? I started keeping a migraine log so
that my doctor can see how they’ve come on suddenly and are severe, and
medication of any sort isn’t helping. My husband’s family came to visit. It was
thoughtful, but when I’m not having a migraine, I’m totally fine, and if I’m
having one, I’m out of commission.
28. Working four nights. Vacation, such as it was
is over. Feeling very nervous about possible migraine. After five for five, I’m
watching for the signs of the sixth. In the meantime, I’ll prep for work.
29. So on the day of my fifth migraine, I reduced
my hormone replacement therapy in half, and I didn’t get a migraine on the
sixth day, but I get hot flashes. If I have to choose, hand me my fan. Today I
made oven fried chicken legs, chick pea salad with lime vinaigrette,
cauliflower, and tomatoes with feta and oregano. It’s all I have to work with.
Tomorrow’s dinner is still a mystery.
30. Busy nights, but no migraines. Today I took ½ a
Gravol to help me sleep since I only slept two hours yesterday. I ended up
sleeping eight hours and waking up ten minutes before I usually leave home. My
husband didn’t come home at the usual time because of a retirement party for a
co-worker. I usually have a few hours to prepare, and this time I had 30
minutes and then had to drive downtown. Thankfully the traffic was good, and I
arrived at exactly the same time as I usually do, but it threw me off a bit,
and I didn’t have any food with me.
31. We went out for dinner at a local restaurant
called Symposium. It was pretty good. Tomorrow we are going to IKEA and bbqing
steak and seafood. Long weekend for Simcoe Day.
