An Autocorrect

As we were heading out the door to pickup our groceries on Tuesday, Shauna texted this message.

Well that was a little alarming, but thank goodness she followed it up very promptly.

What an incredible Autocorrect!

We did get Dani from school. By afternoon, she was recovered sufficiently to make it to her job.

In case anyone is still worried, here is Danica looking very happy, in a very recent picture.

As I have written, she is learning to drive, and that pleases her. But she was extra chuffed in the picture because she was driving what she calls her own car. It's an inheritance, if you will, from her recently deceased paternal grandmother.

The Invisible Man Syndrome

Yesterday, I wrote that, just perhaps, I might try to post from the hospital today. Alas! the invisible man syndrome reared its head, and here I am at home. I have written in the past (I think) that has often seemed to be my fate to be overlooked and to fall through the cracks in life, but I am not going to plow that old furrow again. 

But I will tell that it happened again yesterday. 

At hospital admitting, there was some sort of a hitch with my paperwork, specifically with regards to with having a room for me after the surgery. Nevertheless, I proceeded to the surgery floor and was in there by 7:30 being bombarded with paperwork, questions, and in setting up my IV.

The waiting game began. At around 8:45, they apologized for the delay because the surgery ahead of mine was taking up more time than anticipated. But then, another patient went in before me, which I am pretty sure wasn’t supposed to have happened. Shortly thereafter, I was told that the delay was because they didn’t know where to put me post-surgery. But they were working on it.

I texted Sue and Sha at almost 9:30

They parked me in a corner, or very close to it, and went about their chores with new arrivals and post-surgery care of other patients.

To say that I was uncomfortable in a narrow gurney is an understatement, for apart from the catheter contraption, I have back and other issues, and was also coping with a caffeine-withdrawal headache.

I was beginning to have a pity party and texted:

Ten minutes later:

10:10

10:30 in response to Sue's texts wondering what was going on.

Just after that ↑ post, and after I had been squirming on the gurney for three hours, the surgeon came to see me. There was simply no room available for me in these post-COVID times, and the situation could not been resolved. The invisible man syndrome had struck once again in my lil ole life. 

I faced a choice, Return tomorrow (which is now today) or have the surgery right then (yesterday) and go home afterward.

Well, I am (we are) used to a catheter by now, or as used to it as one can be, and we have been muddling along for two weeks already. Shauna had taken the day off work, and I didn’t want any of us to face the preparation of getting ready all over again for an early morning drive.

I texted Sue at 10:35

My next text to Sue was more than two hours later at 12:50

So, here I am in my humble den and not invisible to Sue. (Or Lacey for that matter, who I can tell you is most anxious for breakfast.) Last night, for only the second time in two weeks, I did not have a sweat-through, and I had a good-for-me sleep in my chair, and not the bed this time. Maybe I will try to sleep in the chair again tonight.

I have a larger diameter catheter this time, but I can’t tell the difference. My urine was pretty red overnight but seems to be a bit less tinged this morning. It will stay in until next Thursday when we will drive back to the hospital where the urologist will remove it. 

That is assuming that he is able to see me through my invisibility cloak.

Pruning and Cutting

We had a lilac bush that had gone off-kilter (or should I write, all catawampus?), partly due to broken branches due to that nasty but short-lived winter ice storm back in April. 

Sue asked our ex-sil if he would help us prune it. Sure enough, he and JJ came over and set to work.

Only a few days prior, I had noticed that the adjacent tree, a silk lilac, was rotting at the trunk. So, although we hadn't been expecting it, they cut that too — all of the way down in that case. Sue's collages tell much of the story.

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In other news, I think I have more or less figured out the lights-in-cars of which I posted yesterday. I think the sun is so dull that it is hardly lighting up the atmosphere, but it's central beams were enough to poke through and cause little spotlights.

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And . . . if you are reading this after 9AM, Wednesday, there is a good chance that I am already out of surgery, but the plan is to stay in overnight. Maybe I'll even post from the hospital bed tomorrow. We'll see about hospital wifi, however, as I don't have a phone plan that gives me a ton of cellular coverage.

Forest Fires and Lights

I was driving north or at least north-ish. When I looked in the rearview mirror, it seemed as though the car behind me had a light on inside: not the main light, but something near the dashboard. How odd!

I cast my eyes to the car behind him and noticed the same thing. Well, two cars wouldn't be driving with interior lights on, so there must be an alternative explanation.

Once we had completed our errand we turned back the way we came, and we saw that many approaching cars were exhibiting a similar effect.

It has to have something to do with the forest fires, but I don't know how the physics works. There are fires relatively close to us, and the atmosphere is very hazy. It's hazy enough that we can't see the sun, so I don't know what could have caused that lighting effect, particularly since it was occurring to traffic travelling north-ish.

We pulled off onto a sideroad to get a bit of a landscape view of the hazy conditions. I know that it just looks like an overcast day, but it is all due to the fires.

We saw more of this weird lighting effect on the rest of the journey, but being a bit of a dullard, I can't begin to explain the phenomenon.

Riverview and Lavender

What a pleasant change!

We hadn't really sat at our favourite spot by the river yet this season, so we picked up coffee and a light lunch and did just that. The car was just behind us, so it wasn't a trek to get the chairs out of the car and set them up. Sue did most of the grunt work, just to save the old boy from extra strain.

I've shown similar photos any number of times, but here we are once again; upriver ↑ and downriver ↓ .

On the way home. we stopped in front of a house where peonies were blooming. There were irises too, but the colour of the peonies was what drew Sue's attention, for she is on lavender week with her photo group, and the peonies were pretty darn close to that colour.

I was happy with this phone macro.

Once we arrived at ours, we found some more lavender-coloured (or close to lavender) ground phlox at the across-the-street neighbour's.

All photos are from my phone. I am not in a mood to lug the big beast about, and at the same time, I am interested in experimenting with the phone a little more.

An Anticipatory Experiment

Yesterday, Sue mentioned that she had seen a gorgeous strawberry moon during the night. She tried to take a phone photo, but it didn't work out.

Last evening, Shauna also mentioned that there was a beautiful moon, but she opined that one can't take a good moon photo with a phone.

Being somewhat, but not completely housebound, I have had little interest in photography recently. But I did think it possible to capture some sort of lunar photo that might be moderately acceptable although it would likely also require some post editing.

I could not see the moon from any of our windows, but I took a photo in the dark with just street and house lights just to get an idea if it might work.

It ↑ was taken through a screen sans tripod, which should be almost necessary at very slow shutter speeds, but this is what I had after some editing. Of course, there is noise/grain and softness, but I think it shows that a semi-decent lunar photo might be possible.

It was something to try, and I often rather like low key images such as the one above.

. . .  Meanwhile this morning, I've added two tees to the laundry after another nighttime soaking. Sue has kindly trimmed my hair, and I my beard. Neither hair nor beard were terribly long, but my light, fly-away hair can easily look rather wild and unkempt, and I don't wish to present too startling an image to the nurses after a night in the hospital. That's not until mid-week, but one must begin to make ready.

Sweats and Leakages

Last night marked the eighth consecutive night that I have slept (if I can call it that) with the catheter. I have five more to go with this catheter and more after a new catheter is installed post-surgery. I expect that will entail six more nights.

It was my best night, though, for it was the first one that didn't require me to get up in search of a new top after soaking through the shirt that I had worn to bed. Yes, I have been experiencing night sweats. This is not unknown to me, but enduring them night after night is new. I discovered that stumbling around in the middle of the night in search of a clean top while hauling a catheter is not a ton of fun. Last night, I was finally prepared with an alternate shirt by my side. Of course, that was the night that I didn't need it. This is how my life unfolds.

In case you don't know, I wear a daytime catheter strapped to the leg, but before bedtime, we switch to the larger nighttime bag*, which we attach to a frame by the bed. This morning there was more than a litre/quart in there. Aside from the larger capacity, it has a longer tube that allows me at least a certain ability to squirm about in search of a comfortable less uncomfortable position. 

We had some trouble with the the initial night bag. The tube attaching it to the actual catheter detached more than once, and there were spills here and there — some in the bed and at least one in my chair. Sigh.

Shauna came to the rescue and found one at her work. She brought it over, and it attaches much more securely, thank goodness. A nurse from her work also dropped in yesterday to make sure that all was well. Fortunately, it was well by then.

Meanwhile, the day bag allows me some sort of mobility. Yesterday, we got to our weekly coffee date, and I have managed to do a wee bit of shopping of the quick in-and-out variety. I would not want to do a regular and more lengthy grocery shopping, so we have reverted to ordering online and picking it up. 

While I appreciate the daytime mobility that I am afforded, there is a certain amount of pulling you-know-where when I walk about, so I tend to keep my excursions brief.

*Aside from the extra volume afforded by the night bag, it is important to keep the bag lower than the body. Having a bag attached to the leg would by problematic with them both on a similar plane.