I may have gotten a little over excited about life last week - getting my licence (freedom) back & feeling well enough to start doing more things. Ask anyone who knows me well - I don't do anything by halves - it's either at 120% or not at all. So on Saturday, I went full throttle, it was a great day but I was absolutely shattered by the time I got home. The trend continued though & I decided I really needed to start doing a lot more for myself so I hung out clothes, cleaned the kitchen & bathrooms, dusted, vacuumed. Mum had a lot to say about all of that but I was sick of feeling dependent. But, I found myself extremely sore most days, some days by very early afternoon.
On Monday night, I woke up with a choking sensation - I managed to get back to sleep but woke up again in excruciating pain down my left arm, across the left side of my chest & back. We called an ambulance & away I went. Thankfully Charli, who had had temperatures all night, stayed sound asleep during the whole thing & Nelson assisted in that by not fussing over the ambulance officers. It turned out that my left lung had re-collapsed & had fluid at the bottom of it which they informed me could well have caused that amount of pain. I was thankful it was nothing to do with my heart but frustrated to hear about my lung.
The hospital trip & CT scan I had there led to some extra information which I talked about with the GP. A CT is NOT the mode of examination used to confirm the presence or absence of the defect in my heart, I will have another echocardiogram to do that BUT my CT showed no signs at all of the defect which previously could be seen. I'm trying not to get too excited about that but also feeling hopeful! The CT results also stated that the sternum fusion was incomplete... I casually mentioned that to the doctor, just checking it was okay at this point. She looked almost sorry for me as she explained the bone there wouldn't fuse back together until the 6-9 month mark. THAT news certainly made me want to slow down. I went to meet a friend for lunch & do some painting at the hobby store after that which made me feel a lot better & it was nice to be out of the house.
Friday's plans had been on the cards since last week. I told Jake I was desperate to go to the BookFest in Brisbane. So, Jake asked for a days leave & we planned to go into the convention center & nerd out, maybe have some lunch... We got there, picked our first section & split up to cover more ground. I probably should have hired a trolley because I was stuffing books in my bag - then that was full, so I just started holding them. I very quickly got faint & felt so nauseous. I called Jake, who ran across the section to my rescue. We headed for the check-out then, satisfied that we'd done enough in that particular spot. I told Jake I might just have a seat outside while he paid, I was feeling worse by the second. The good people from Lifeline had really done a great job this year with a "revive" area full of couches. I plonked down on one, breathing deep to stave off the nausea. The lightheaded feeling only increased & I ended up slithering onto the floor, much to the dismay of some of the other book buyers. Jake came from the check-outs & I asked him to find me a sick bag because I didn't feel I could make a trek to the toilet. That caused a flurry & I ended up with a beautiful security guard, Cheryl, sitting with me while Jake went to get my something sugary from the cafe. I'd simply overdone it - with a bit of pain, not enough energy in general & low-blood sugar I ended up crumpled on the floor, leaning against a couch eating mouse sized portions of a blueberry muffin. Jake had taken the day off & we had driven all the way in here for this, there was no way in hell I was just heading home. So while I slowly & quietly regained some strength, Jake hit up another section for the both of us. By the time he returned I was well enough to very slowly go through the last section with him. We hired a trolley this time & things were a lot easier that way. Another stupid thing we done was park under South Bank. In the spirit of wanting to get lunch & planning for it to be the last place we were at, it seemed logical at the time. So, Jake carried 4 bags FULL of books (56 to be exact) the two block walk back to the car. Ladies, if this isn't your man, get rid of him...
We did end up stopping off for lunch (late lunch thanks to my episode) & running a couple of errands while we were at the shopping center. We then grabbed Charli from daycare early & took her to the park. Needless to say, last night I felt like I'd been hit by a Mack Truck.
Today I took things much easier & even uncharacteristically asked Mum to come by this morning while Jake worked to help do some washing & vacuuming. Thanks Mum! I'm still feeling extra sore tonight & it's a bit of a sign to say slow down, I think. As much as I want to do things, going too hard, too fast is only going to make recovery slower & more painful.
There have been a lot of peaks & valleys this week but here's to a slower, more restful week ahead. No bookfests to be crazy at, only
light house duties & fingers crossed no hospital visits!
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