For those of you who don’t follow me on Twitter or Facebook, it’s been a busy time for me. I spent Sunday the 12th in the emergency room with my mother, who was then admitted to the hospital for four days for shortness of breath and fluid retention.
They quickly ruled out a heart attack and performed a bunch of tests. She’s home now, with a diagnosis of Chronic Heart Dysfunction. It’s similar to Chronic Heart Failure, but she doesn’t have the damage associated with it. As the doctor put it, she has an old heart and she needs to take better care of it.
Needless to say, we’re both adapting to a new normal here. This has involved me cleaning out the refrigerator of about 70% of its contents and replacing them with low salt items. We’re waiting for the meal service to start on Tuesday. We’re also watching her water intake. The good news is that she’s dropped over 20 pounds of water weight in the last week, and we’re seeing improvements in her mobility. The hospital stay was a great way to spur weight loss, but I don’t recommend it.
Because of all of this, I’m off my schedule. Right now I’m the one setting writing deadlines for some things, and waiting for responses from others. But I spent almost a week without writing. I also spent a week without knitting. The last few days I’ve been cranky, and I’ve figured out that is part of why.
So this week is going to be catching up to where I want to be. We have one more follow up appointment scheduled, and with any luck, the new pattern will have settled by the time I go back to work on Wednesday. Right now my plans for attending FOGcon aren’t affected, but that may change.
Speaking of FOGcon, I will be participating in the “Science Fiction and Fantasy Podcasts” panel. I don’t produce any podcasts, but I listen to a lot of them, and am always on the look out for more.
So the only thing constant in my life right now is change. Hopefully this will be change for the better.