More than four week after first getting sick, I'm still recovering. I finished my antibiotic Saturday night. On Sunday night I noticed a new manifestation--a swollen Mastoid gland behind my left ear. I'm still a little weak, although able to do most chores and such. My stamina levels ebb and flow from day to day. So I googled all that on MayoClinic.com. Wowser! Possible conditions include mononucleosis, tuberculosis, lupus and cancer. But, no worries. I really don't have all the symptoms for those illnesses. Most likely it's my body still fighting infection. Viral or bacterial. Whichever. Self care? Warm, moist compresses and NSAIDS*. Got it.
Today I made the trip up to Target again. I needed pseudoephedrine and I was not going to pay the $8.29 for it at CVS. It's $4.54 at Target. Can you say "duh"? I needed to restock my medicine cabinet with ibuprofen, too, since it's the only NSAID that works for me. So I made a list and got a few other things, too. I went to the back of the store for the pet supplies and grabbed a box of Arm & Hammer scoopable cat litter. The 28 lb size had 3 free pounds. Great! I had a coupon, too. That always makes me feel good. Until I realized the coupon expired--yesterday! Arrrgh! Oh well, deep breaths.
The irony is that yesterday I had felt pretty good and ran several errands. Pet store, book store and Jewel. I avoid Jewel, usually, but they had the Yoplait yogurt on sale and they have a big selection of flavors at Jewel. Target is kind of hit-or-miss with the flavor choices. I had printed a coupon for the yogurt (on my new printer--yay!), but forgot that at home. There is just no way I can go to the strip mall at 87th and Harlem and not go to the book store. Anyway, there isn't any Target in that direction from my house. So, I've been able to get more shopping done, which is an accomplishment.
After I started on the antibiotic, I began to gradually gain strength and endurance. Not a lot and some days were better than others, but it was improvement--even with the side effects from the antibiotic (which were not inconsiderable). I was back to doing most chores and I sporadically picked away at cleaning out.
One day I grabbed a couple of big garbage bags and got behind the storage room closet. I filled two of those big black bags and got them out to the bins. Another day I assembled another bookcase. Then I began to bring books into the storage room as I felt up to it. I also boxed up more books to sell. And I boxed up some items I was able to rescue from behind the closet. After a week or so, I had cleared enough books from my bedroom that I was able to bring my printer upstairs!
One day, my daughter said she found a second-hand sofa that was in better condition than ours. Oh yeah? A few days later, while she was out, she called to say they (her and the bf) were bringing the newer sofa home. Would I move the other out of the way and vacuum? It took a supreme act of will to not only move the old sofa and vacuum there, but I wrestled the old sofa outside (during a rare lull in the rain) and covered it securely with a tarp. Several hours later, they come home with the newer sofa. In the driving rain they brought it in. It's deeper (front to back) than our old one, so more room for the kitties to curl up next to me. Nice. I was ready to collapse on it and stay there for a week! We just had to get rid of the old one that was sitting to one side of the drive way. Fortunately, this occurred just before the "big item" garbage pick up.
Once a year, our waste management services will pick up large items at no extra cost. Maximum of two items. ^snort^ Two? Like that would do us much good! Besides the old sofa, we had a mattress, box spring, large mirror and a bulky outdoor chair. But I remembered that last year we were the only house on the block that had large items for pick up. So I asked my neighbors--just the ones directly next door on each side--if they were going to take advantage of the pick up this year. If not, could I put items with their garbage? I got the go-ahead from both sides, so that was great!
Pick up is on Tuesday. Regular garbage pick up has usually come and gone by the time I get up at 8:00 a.m. or so. This means I have to put the garbage out on Monday. So Monday afternoon I started dragging the stuff to the end of the driveways. I took the mattress and box spring (two trips) to our neighbors on the left, because I could pull them across their front yard without tearing up their manicured lawn. The sofa I shoved down our driveway. Then I pulled out the hand cart and put the large mirror next to the sofa. Last, but not least, I went to the back yard (where I discovered we had wasps again!) and took the bulky wooden chair and it's cushion and tossed it over the fence to the right of the house. Then I walked--more like slogged at that point--around the house and dragged the chair and cushion to the end of that neighbor's driveway. Whew! We have a wooden bench in our driveway against the side of the house. I had thought I wouldn't like having a bench there, but I have used that thing several times while working outside. It's a great place to catch my breath and work up some more energy. I certainly used it that day! I could have found something else to get rid of, but I had no more energy to pull, push or drag anything else anywhere, except my self into the house.
When the garbage came the next morning, I was still upstairs. I thought about running down and making sure they took everything, but I really wasn't up to hurrying. When I went downstairs, I was dismayed to see the old sofa still sitting at the end of the driveway! Everything else was gone. Maybe they would be back? Was it too big? I had removed the tarp but put clear plastic sheeting over it because we were suppose to get more rain. Did they not realize it was garbage because the sheeting was over it? After breakfast, I finally called the company. The lady was very nice. She took the information and said she would contact the truck for our area. She thought that it was likely they ran out of room and would be back for it later, but she'd make sure. Well, they came back for it--at 7:30 that evening! But it was gone and I felt like I had lost 200 pounds!
Over the last couple of days I started bringing some of my daughter's stuff from the storage room to her bedroom. Tabitha and Khai think it's great because I leave her bedroom door open while I'm doing this. They rarely get a chance to go in her room anymore. So they run under my feet as I'm carrying boxes and bags. Until I want to close the door. Then they scurry away and I have to round them up and drive them out. There's a good reason that doing something difficult and frustrating is said to be "like herding cats."
The truck to pick up donations comes on the 29th. I really need to be a lot better before then so I can haul everything out to the driveway. That pick up will be like losing 500 pounds! I can hardly wait!
*non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs
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