One Week After

Well, it’s been a week since I experienced the wonderful effects of blood clots swimming upstream from my left calf to spawn in my lungs. It’s a beautiful thing, really. Not.

I’m coming around to accepting this recovery thing. I am a little stronger each day. My health was great then,out of the blue one week ago, it wasn’t.

Yesterday three good-ish things happened. I slept through the night. Basically, I sleep by sitting up against some pillows in bed. Lying on my side was causing some discomfort (not to mention more than a little suffocation anxiety).

Good thing number two, I think, was the fact that I coughed up blood. Eww. Sorry, but I am really surprised that this didn’t happen sooner. It was only a small amount, perhaps a quarter of a teaspoon. The sooner I can get this crap out of my lungs the better as far as I am concerned. (If it becomes a regular thing, or if the amount of blood becomes significantly greater, I have to call the doctors in, just to be safe.)

Good thing number three is my family and I went to another basketball game. I walked up two flights of stairs and was pretty winded. My heart rate went way up. The tachometer was briefly in the red zone. Danger Will Robinson. But after slowly walking a couple of blocks I felt fine. Thank you, bike riding. Inside the Phonebooth (what we call the downtown arena here in DC) I decided to look for my friend Jacques. I walked down the entire 100 level to courtside. There was no sign of Jacques so I walked right back up to the concourse. My heart went thumpity thump thump. Then I walked around the arena to our seats and my heart rate came back down to normal. I made it to my seat without being exhausted like Saturday night. No tears of frustration.

The game itself was a classic. Butler, my daughter’s alma mater, fell behind by 20 points to Georgetown. Then they came back. Bit by bit. The game went into two overtimes and Butler won. My son, who knows sports way better than I do, said that Georgetown has better players but the Butler coach outcoached Patrick Ewing, the Georgetown coach who is in the Basketball Hall of Fame for his stellar playing career. Both coaches are first year head coaches.

We walked back to the car with no ill effects for me. At 11 p.m. I was a little weak, but my spirits were high. It’s amazing what counts as a good day now.

My son leaves today.  He lives on the other side of the world. I am really going to miss him.

My daughter leaves on Friday. I get one more evening with my baby. Then she’s off to London town.

It is cold outside. From the basement I can hear something.

Big Nellie is calling my name.