Sheba is Ill

Every Friday morning, I look forward to watching my two Dutch ‘friends’ vlog. Bram, Simon, and their daughter, Nox, a Simon’s parents bought a large derelict farm in the south of France. First they renovated the spaces they are living in, and now they are passionate gardeners, growing most all their food, and they are renovating a huge barn into three apartments that they will rent out or rent as a B&B. I love their vlogs.

I had a lovely soak in the morning after I watched their vlog, and then Her Highness and I went to meet our friends to walk, but she was not having it. She made it very clear that she was not feeling well, so we went shopping for supplies to make a curried rice salad to take to Pete and Ali’s this afternoon for our luncheon with some other neighbours.

Once all were fed lunch and the salad was in the fridge, we went for a mid-day walk at Rollo Park where she usually will always be willing to walk. By then, the clouds had rolled in, but it was still a comfortably warm 19°. Regardless, however, she did not want to walk.

When we got home, she rested and I doomscrolled until it was time to Zoom with Aidan. It’s always a pleasure talking with him. Yesterday we talked about an event happening in Vancouver and organized by SPACE. He’s asked me to ‘perform’ at it, and I said that I would, so last night I wrote out what I would do and say and sent my proposal to him.

It means going to Vancouver. John and Bunny will, I’m sure, put me up. What I’m going to do with Sheba is not clear. She’s definitely coming with me; she’ll have to wait in the car while I do my bit. I can’t quite believe that I’m going to be on a stage again, and ‘performing’ with my stutter. I think what I’ve written is going to work. Still, I’m nervous/excited about doing it.

Today, I Zoom with John early in the morning, and lunch is with some of my neighbours at Pete and Ali’s place. I love Pete and Ali, so I’m looking forward to being together. And there’ll be watering, but there’ll be no walking. Poor Sheba is barely walking. She is in poor shape. I shall be monitoring her all day to decide if we need to see the vet. 

Recovery!

When I woke up on Thursday, the sky was clear and full of twinkling stars. It was beautiful! I thought I’d feed the pets and tidy up and then have an early morning spa in the dark. But no. Within half an hour, the sky had filled with clouds and rain—real rain—began falling.

I lit a small fire to make the house cozy on a dark and wet day. When the rain turned to light rain, Her Highness and I went for our morning walk. Then, just past noon when the sun returned, we went for another walk. When we got home, I did some yard work and then I got onto the chaise and into my book, Angle of Repose. In the evening, I watched The Devil Wears Prada 2 because it was free. I hated it. 

For a long time now, I have been stable. My speech has not changed at all since February. I’ve been using the phone on rare occasions; it’s a huge step forward for me to be able to make non-video calls. I stutter rather badly when I use the phone, but I can succeed, and that thrills me.

Even better, I rarely seize. When Steve was here, I seized three times on the first day he was here, but never again during his stay, and I didn’t have a single seizure when Beth came to stay. Recovery is so incredibly slow, I don’t notice it until recently when I found myself able to try using the phone.

I’m still mute when I go off island, but it’s so incredibly rare that I leave here, it doesn’t bother me to be mute/ When I went for my bone scan, they knew about my speech and my visit went very smoothly. On Wednesday, I go to the pacemaker clinic at Nanaimo General Hospital (NGH), and I’ll be mute there as well, but notes on my iPhone work excellently. What I don’t like at the NGH, is how often the clerks don’t look up when I am checking in. They are looking at their screen while I am trying to show them a note, and sometimes the clerks are rude because I am not answering.

Today, we will walk with our friends, I will Zoom with Aidan, and I will make a curried rice salad because tomorrow, I go to Pete and Ali’s for a luncheon with them and other neighbours.

Huge Forest Fall

During the recent few weeks, I was coughing up a lot of mucus from my lungs. I was of a mind to ask my doctor if I should go back on Spiriva, the inhaler I stopped taking on his advice, but I gave myself my Tezspire shot last Thursday and the coughing stopped. It leaves me worried that my asthma is winning. I’ll be starting an asthma diary (much like my psych diary that I keep for Dr. Shoja.).

It was wonderful to rise and attend to my morning chores without any coughing. I started watering early, getting most of it done before walking with Her Highness who has a new problem. She has a small wart-like growth on her leg that she irritates, so I have bound her leg for the short-term to see what the growth looks like after being protected from Sheba’s incessant licking.

Then I came home to finish the watering and discovered a very large branch lying across one of my garden beds. It had crushed part of a Rhodo and another shrub that I can’t identify. There was lots of damage and it was a challenge to clean it up without doing more damage to my plants.

This bad news came after discovering a lot of damage to my Jasmine vine and my front bed from deer. Both the deer and falling branches are part of life here, so I wasn’t disturbed by my finding. What disturbs me is finding dead birds that have crashed into my windows. There was one poor wee beauty on my deck this morning.

I did SPACE work, read and doomscrolled the early afternoon away, then Her Highness and I walked the Elder Cedar trail. It was a glorious afternoon and walk. I love it when it’s only in the low twenties during the Summer. Then it was time for dinner and watching a movie on my new huge TV!

Wow, the weather has really changed. Today, and for the ensuing two days, a mixture of sun, clouds and showers are predicted, followed by several overcast days. It’s as though the end of August tells the weather to change. Thankfully, I have books to read and more arriving soon.

I have very modest goals for the day.

The backyard last evening.

The branch that fell and crushed part of my garden bed that
lies under several trees. The photo does not do justice to the
size of the branch. It is HUGE and I must saw it into pieces 
today so that I can throw it into the forest.

My showiest Fuschia is spectacular.

 IF you look closely (click on the photo to enlarge it) you can see
the vines through the doors of the Virginia Creeper spreading along
the gutters outside. And it covers one of the windows I look out through
when I am at my desk. I love how 

The famous fish tacos I get most Summer Sundays
at the Firetruck Grill food truck in Silva Bay. 

François and Eoin's new baby ducks. They hatch them in an 
incubator. They have a lot of ducks; they sell the eggs and eat 
the meat of the males. They must carefully balance the male/
female ratio of their flock.

Lake Canuck

Tuesday few by! We went for an early walk together before I took Sheba to the groomer’s for a makeover. While she was getting cleaned up, I did some shopping and then I went to pick her up. Once back home, it was soon lunchtime and after lunch I did some doomscrolling and some SPACE work, and before I knew it, it was time to go for our afternoon walk. 

I had a lovely long soak in the spa before we went for our walk. The walk was spectacular. The forest has dried out, and the fragrances were incredibly stimulating. They turned my mind to recollections of walks in Africa, India and southern France.

At 17:00 I attended a Zoom meeting of US health professionals who stutter. I was the only Canadian in the chat, and the only person who is not a health professional. However, I reckon I earned my place at the table because the host thanked the two nurses who chaired the meeting and me. I was the only participant thanked and I know it was because of the points I made.

There was quite a bit of discussion about disclosing. Should they declare that they stutter or not was at the centre of a long discussion. I waited a long time before I spoke because I was not certain I would be welcome because I was not a health worker, so when I did speak I began with my own disclosure. I told then I was Canadian and not a health worker and then I told them about the work I am doing with Aidan to make medical services easier for dysfluent people to access.

The discussion was framed around health care workers who stutter and about how to function as a stutterer in a medical setting, but when I spoke I spoke as an advocate for patients and I told them that stuttering patients needed them as allies and that by not disclosing their stutter to their peers, they were deciding not to educate them about dysfluency. That, I said, is a disservice to people who stutter. I could see them nodding in agreement as I spoke and I was thanked for speaking up for patients. It all went over very well. 

Then Her Highness and I went for our afternoon walk. It was a long one and at first she balked at walking in the heat, but she finally relented and we had a good walk. And then it was dinnertime followed by a movie on my huge and fabulous new TV!!!

•

Let’s rename Lake Michigan Beaver Lake or Lake Canuck. Yay Canada for standing up to old Fuckface. 

•

Today, of course, is sunny but it is going to be cooler. Yesterday it was 27° when Sheba and I went for our walk. It’s a major watering day for me today, but we’ll walk with our friends as well, and I shall do some work in the garden.

A change in the weather is coming. Sunday, the sun will be behind a cloud cover for at least three days.