Another lost day

I never really woke up yesterday. I kept drifting in and out of sleep and don't really remember all that much. I know that at one point Lauren was here (I'm not sure if I called her or Marty did) and when she took my temperature discovered that it was over 100 degrees, so she started me on a regimen of tylenol and extra nebulizer treatments, and said I was probably coming down with some kind of bug. For most of the day, I wasn't hungry at all, but by late afternoon I was beginning to feel a little better, and when I took my temperature it was back to normal.

I have only the vaguest memory of Caren arriving; she was the one who finally figured out how to post the invitation to the event on the blog (thank you, Caren, for your wonderful computer skills). I hope people can read it in the enlarged format, but at least all of you can see the beautiful results of Marty's talent as a graphic designer.

Because of sleeping so much of the day, things got a little bit time-shifted--I know I had some buttered pasta at about nine, and really startled Marty when I asked for some more after midnight (as he was getting ready for bed himself). Despite all the sleeping I did during the day, I slept most of the night as well. I woke up at one point and ascertained that it was about four A.M. I had to go to the bathroom, but I felt strong enough to do it without waking Marty, and then went into the kitchen and got a can of ginger ale. I can read in bed without waking Marty, so I read for awhile until I got sleepy again, and then slept until nearly seven. I was glad Marty was still sleeping as he was exhausted.

We were out a good part of the day on Tuesday, which felt really good (although I guess I overtired myself). First, we picked up Marty's friend Sherif and went for lunch to Rubin's, a kosher deli in Brookline. I have two favorite things there, so I decided to have a brisket sandwich for lunch and get a take-out order of stuffed cabbage (so you can have your [metaphorical] cake and eat it too!). After dropping Sherif off, we went to Home Depot to get a new dishwasher, which unfortunately won't be delivered until next Tuesday. It's easy to shop there because they have motorized carts (sparing Marty from having to lift the scooter out of the trunk and assemble it). We then drove to the other end of the mall to go to shopping for a dress for my event. Marty got a wheelchair from customer service for me--I'm not sure if this was more effort for him than the scooter would have been, but it was drizzling and he especially did not want to be assembling it in the rain. The last two times he's had a lot of difficulty getting the two main parts to snap together and he's getting worried that there may be a part that is bent, which is going to need to be checked out.

The first store we went to, Filene's Basement, had absolutely nothing even remotely suitable--the only dresses I saw were prom dresses and the like. (For the uninitiated, Filene's Basement at one time was actually in a basement, but now has a number of branch stores in the northeast.) As we were about to leave the mall, I saw an Ann Taylor outlet store, and we decided to look there. I found a very simple blue dress, which I liked, and which Marty did too. Because of all the prednisone, I'm not sure of my size, so we looked on the rack for a twelve and a fourteen, but found only a twelve. When I took it into the fitting room, there was a fourteen hanging there, which was a good thing, because when I tried it on it was obvious I never would have gotten into the twelve!

We then drove to another mall, directly across the road, where Marty had to do some paperwork at the Registry of Motor Vehicles, while I sat in the car, with the air conditioner running; I reclined the seat, and I think actually managed to nap a little. But I became concerned about the portable oxygen machine--this is the little one that fills from the big oxygen tank that sits in the kitchen, and is refilled weekly by the oxygen company. The indicator showed that it was still half full, but I didn't feel the little puff of air so wasn't sure if I was getting any oxygen. I know this happened once before with our previous oxygen company, and the guy who came brought a replacement machine and told me that these machines need occasional refurbishing (possibly correlating with the number of times they get dropped?), so we will have to see how this company handles it (Lauren was here earlier and said she would call them to deal with this problem). Until then, we will use the portable concentrator when we go out (which presents its own set of problems regarding keeping it charged).

By the time we got home I was exhausted, but after yesterday's lost day, I feel pretty much back to baseline now, although baseline is somewhat of a floating target these days.