Learning the hard way...
16 January 2012
• Shelburne NS
by Mike
....about pill taking. What a stupid topic to raise on a sailing blog, but since none of us are getting any younger and since one of the by-products of aging seems to be increasing medications of various sorts to deal with the treacherous old carcass not behaving itself, it is something that will face us all at one time or another and which we will take with us on our merry trips on the boat. Last night I forgot about the proscribed method of pill taking, namely - take a full glass of water in one hand and the pills in the other; take a swallow of the water to grease the way; bung down the pills; and wash 'em down with the rest of the water. In my case I take some ibuprofin to reduce the pain in the prolapsed disk in my neck to allow me to sleep and being a manly man I neglected to take the water. "I don' need no stinkin' water!", I said to myself, and down they went, bareback so to speak. Well, I didn't realize it until later but they only got half way down before one or more of them got hung up on something, the gel began to dissolve and the meds that were only supposed to be released in the stomach were released in the oesophagus. What fun! Irritated oesophageal wall for the entire night. Even multiple glasses of milk didn't resolve the problem. Sigh! Poor ol', dumb ol' me! No more pills without loads of water from now on but I'll have to wait until the irritation heals before I try anything.
On a better note - Barb finally got her surgery date to become Bionic Barb - 29 February. Good thing there was an extra day this year otherwise we might still be waiting. I won't steal any more of her thunder if she wants to contribute as there is a litany of tasks that she has to do before and after the surgery. At least it is major progress forward for her to not have to worry about exercising, going for walks with me, and, gloryorsky! getting back aboard Nelleke. She should be in good form to begin weekend and holiday cruising this summer and perhaps to even have the other knee done next winter. Hurray!
What it does do is put time shutters around the work that we are doing on the house as obviously her recovery will take precedence. By then we should have the new kitchen cabinets in and the upstairs bathroom redone (those are mostly my jobs, btw) and Barb will get a lot of the downstairs painting finished. Our hide-a-bed in the TV room will become her bed for a week or so after the surgery so that she'll not have to climb the stairs, and there is a shower in the downstairs bathroom so that side of things will be taken care of. I am hoping that she will be able to focus on her physio and recovery regimen to the exclusion of all else for at least the first month. This means that our planned housewarming will be set back a couple of months from February to probably April. Son, Chris, might be able to make that one too, so there are benefits all around.
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