2020 Life Logs, Day 127: Practice Makes Perfect
Date: Thursday, May 7, 2020
Weather: Partly Sunny, Cool; High 56 degrees, Low 44 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Cottage, East Falmouth, MA
I’ve been practicing doing nothing this week, and I’m getting darn good at it. I guess practice really does make perfect! The reason for the ‘do nothing’ policy is the sciatic nerve pain in my hips, originating from a problem in my lower spine. It is not getting better and today the chiropractor insisted I call my primary care and try to get him to refer me for an MRI. My chiropractor wants to see what’s going on before he continues to try and adjust things. Usually my back issues are caused by misalignment, but that is not the case this time. My primary care is not seeing patients unless it is an emergency, but I do have a Zoom appointment with him on Monday. Hopefully, I can convince him to make the referral for the MRI so that it can be determined if the problem is a herniated disc or bone spurs or just general bone degeneration in my spine. Ugh. This getting old thing is just no fun.
Heather saw her doctor this morning, but she really doesn’t know much more. The doctor thinks her problems stem from stress/anxiety and exhaustion but did test for thyroid and anemia. But no coronavirus test. The doctor’s prescription is light exercise, meditation, and sleep. The problem is that the reason for the exhaustion is not going away. So, we’ll see how this works out.
Tonight, I had my now nightly phone conversation with my sister who lives in the Nashville area of Tennessee. The extreme weather events there are really wearing her down, but today was a calm weather day and she seemed a bit better. Living totally alone during these coronavirus lockdown days has been really hard for her, but I was happy to hear that she seemed better tonight. Then I talked with my friend Helaine Kanegsberg. Alan and Helaine live in a multi-leveled retirement community. They live in their own home on the campus and life is good for those in independent living conditions. Dinner can be ordered and delivered to their door and there are planned online activities all day and all evening. There have been a number of cases of coronavirus in the nursing home facilities on campus, but the staff has been able to control that and are being sought out by other assisted living and nursing facilities for advice on best practices. We agreed that we are blessed to live in a state where Republican Governor Charlie Baker is leading by setting policies based on science and facts. When I see what is happening in different states across this country, I am so glad I live in Massachusetts. At this point, Charlie Baker certainly has my vote of approval.
