Begin As You Mean to Go On

That's what December did! Well, not quite - no one else has died (in our family), thank God. But it's been a stressful and tiring month and I'll be happy to see the old year out and the new year in. After L.'s funeral, Irish got sick with a very bad (but productive) cough deep in his chest, with body aches and incredible fatigue and a lot of light-headedness/dizziness. For at least a week he did nothing but cough and sleep. We're pretty sure it was covid. He did get a covid test at the VA but never got the results - he can find out when he gets his next Coumadin blood test. I think the VA has been overwhelmed in the past month. When you try to call, you either get a message that due to the volume of calls, they can't answer right now and please call later or they transfer your call to Fort Wayne - and they're not answering either! I know the two big hospitals are overwhelmed and practically begging people to get vaccinated. He's much, much better now - still a little easily fatigued but I haven't heard him cough in a couple days and he's even managed to go to the drive through at McDonald's a couple times over the weekend. He couldn't have driven a week ago. I am truly thankful for the vaccination - I'm convinced (and so is Irish and my sister, who's a nurse) that if he hadn't been vaccinated, Irish would be dead. He's got COPD and asthma, plus he's 70. I think the vaccine saved his life.(Because of the COPD, we have an oxygen generator at home. He generally doesn't need to use it often but he's been using it almost 24/7 since he got sick.)

My best friend, her sister, and her mom also had covid (they and Irish didn't get it from each other; we hadn't seen each other in awhile). They're all vaccinated. BF says she's never been that sick in her life and is convinced she would've died if she weren't vaccinated (she has asthma and was dependent on her inhaler while she was ill). Her sister and mom ended up in the hospital and the doctor told her sister she would have died if she hadn't been vaccinated (several health issues, including kidney failure). Their mom did die, a few days before Christmas. It was unexpected - she was sick, but not using oxygen or on a ventilator. She just went to sleep and died peacefully. The family is sad but are happy that she didn't suffer and that they didn't have to make any difficult end of life decisions. (Plus their dad died last year - not covid - and their mom was tired and ready to go.)

We meant to have our family gathering on Christmas Day at my sister's but had to postpone. She and her husband were both exposed to covid a couple days before, though not a "reportable exposure" (it was less than 15 minutes more than 6 feet away). Since it wasn't a reportable exposure, she had planned on going ahead with dinner, but my mom woke up not feeling well on Christmas and didn't want to come because she didn't know if it was covid. (It was not! But much better safe than sorry.) So Irish and I celebrated quietly at home with spaghetti and lots of snacks and cookies. Store bought, I'm afraid.

And then I injured my right hand! I think it's tendinitis - it feels exactly like when I had tendinitis in my left arm 30 years ago. It hurts to grip. Do you know how many things you use that gripping motion for? Fortunately I can eat left-handed and even write fairly legibly, though not necessarily easily. Even better, it doesn't hurt at all to use the track pad or type, so I'm not taking any time off work. We're short-handed this week and if I did, it'd leave our newest department member working all alone all week and she is not ready for that.

We didn't get any Christmas decorations up and I didn't get any Christmas cards out. Thank you for the ones I received - they really brightened things up and I truly appreciate them. I'm sorry I didn't get mine out to you.

So December is kind of a bust and I'm really, really looking forward to 2022. Surprisingly, I'm looking at most of the month with a sense of humor - not L's death and not BF's mom's death - but everything else tends to seem like a comedy of errors. As I mentioned to a church friend yesterday, Jesus is still here with us and we have so many blessings and that made it a good Christmas. I hope all of you have a wonderful New Year!

Happy Birthday curiouswombat!

Hope you have a very happy birthday and a good year ahead.