Thursday, May 24, 2007

Well, it’s been thirteen days since I started on the anitbiotics for Lyme Disease.  They seem to be doing a pretty good job.  When I started them, I had some scary symptoms; severe painful stiffness in the back, which was far different than my usual back pain, sharp painful headaches and lethargy…and inability to stay awake.

Today my wife and I drove 100 miles each way to go shopping at the Little Rock Air Force Base, where we go every month or two to stock up on cheaper food.  One of my military retirement benefits.  We take the back roads, just ease along and enjoy the scenery.  In good weather, like yesterday, we’ll have a picnic lunch in the park at the base, then go shopping.

It was a very nice day, weather wise and activity wise.  I was concerned that under the conditions of driving a long way I might experience some Lyme Disease lethargy, but I didn’t. I was able to do the driving all the way, both ways.  My wife likes it like that!

After we got home, I just took care of some little piddly things around the house, stayed calm and worked email.

I did have some back pain, but I think it was not the Lyme Disease kind, but the kind I’ve had for years.  It was bad enough to make me take extra ibuprophen, which helped a lot.

I wonder what retirement would be like if we retirees retained our youthful vigor to combine with our years of learning and experience?  Methinks the world couldn’t stand it!

Wednesday, May 23, 2007

6:00 A.M. Waked up feeling pretty good.

 Summary:  Had a pretty good day today, with a good bit of activity.  The only Lyme symptom was a small headache in the afternoon.

7:00 A.M.  Breakfast with my wife.  Always a good time that strengthens our relationship.

7:45 – 8:15 A.M. Finished cleaning up the kitchen after breakfast and got ready for the day

8:15 – 9:30 A.M.  Did some “light” work in the office, working email, checking the news and my web page progress.

9:30 A.M. – 12:30 P.M. Took my mother to town. Ran several errands, shopped for the week and spent some time finding a few flowers to plant in her yard where she detected some “bare spots”.  She’s English and loves her “Garden”, which is English English for “Yard”.

12:30 – 1:00 P.M. Had lunch and nap

1:00 – 5:30 P.M. Frustrating afternoon, full of distractions that kept me from making any meaningful progress in the office on book, website, etc.  I did get a little work done on the affiliate site.

8:30 P.M. I think I got my affiliate site up and running.  I still don’t fully understand it, but will let it sit for a little while and see what happens.  The next events may hold some answers for me.

I’m outta here…going to spend some time visiting with my wife and dog.

Tuesday, May 22, 2007

Well, I was about to think that the Lyme Disease was gone. I am thankful for all the good days I’ve had.

6:00 A.M. Waked up and had a stiff back; unusually stiff. This is Lyme Disease stiff, not my usual back pain. Took my medicine. Having no more trouble with stomach upset from the doxycycline.

7:00 A.M Had breakfast with my Sweetie. Good breakfast, great conversation.

8:45 A.M. In the office to set up my web site for an affiliate program I signed up for yesterday. It is a marketing system that is peculiar to the internet and is guaranteed to work, or your money back. Found out that all the technical stuff is not ready yet, may have to wait another 24 hours before it’s up and running. Will let you know how it turns out. I am even thinking about starting a blog about the experience. I’ll keep you posted.

12:30 P.M. Had lunch with my wife. I’ve been fairly active in the office. My thinking is O.K. and I’m not having a pain, but still stiff in the back, and even that is getting better, slowlyl

2:00 – 2:30 P.M. Took the inevitable nap. This goes with retirement, and I love it! It has nothing to do with Lyme Disease, but I would take a nap because of the disease, if necessary. These long days just require a break. I find that if I just push and push through the afternoon, I am slow and dumb…well not very smart all afternoon. If, however, I relent and invest 15 – 60 minutes in a nap, my mood and my production for the afternoon increase greatly. It helps me catch my “second wind” as the runner say.

9:15 P.M. Well, I’ve had a good afternoon that included a good bit of computer work, finding an entry for Affordable Asian Adventures dot com and writing some content for my forthcoming Travel Asia site.  After perusing some of the prices in Europe, on the surface it appears to me that a person could make 2 or 3 trips to Asia for the price of one to Europe!  But for those who have Europe on their minds, Asia won’t do…and vice versa.

My wife reminded me, so I took my antibiotics around 6:00 P.M., just like the doctor ordered.

I did have a little gatrointestinal distress this afternoon, but it passed fairly quickly.  The stiff back and a mild, but “sharp” headache are about all the damage the Lyme Disease did today.

Ooops….I forgot to take my evening Samento….gotta go, so long!

What a Bad Boy am I!

Saturday, May 19 was a really good day! So good that I just got busy living and forgot to maintain this blog. I’ll try to make up for it now.

Summary of Saturday, Sunday and Monday: These were all good days.  I felt really good on Saturday and Sunday.  Maintained a normal and fairly active schedule on these days, although Sunday was rather lazy.

After church on Sunday, I had a nice lunch, and laid down for a nap, like I like to do on Sunday.  I slept for nearly two hours, but that didn’t seem to be induced by the Lyme Disease.

Monday, I had a productive day, working on my book until afternoon, then I cut a little grass in the yard and puttered around a bit.  Got a small but “sharp” headache aroung mid-day…took two ibuprophen and that settled the headache.

Monday evening after supper I tried the Samento again.  Took one drop in 4 ounces of water, as directed, and had no stomach upset this time.  That previous episode of stomach upset may have been me, and just coincided with the time I took my first dose of Samento.  I have high hopes that the Samento will be a good thing for overall health maintenance.

Friday, May 18, 2007

6:00 A.M. Waked up feeling pretty good.  Had a good night’s sleep, only woke up once during the night. Took my medicine promptly.

Summary:  Felt good today, got organized and got stuff done.  My book is coming along.   Finished assigned tasks on it early, got some exercise and worked on a household project.

6:20 A.M. Had morning coffee and visit with wife.  Read some business news on the internet.

7:15 A.M.  Had breakfast with my wife.  As usual, she provided a good meal.

8:30 A.M. In the office, using Microsoft Outlook for my organizer since my paper one always seems to be buried and doesn’t get consulted enough to be effective enough.  Set up Outlook.

10:00 -10:45 A.M. Drove to the Post Office and local C store to get gas for the lawn mower.  Had a nice visit at the Post Office with the Postmaster and a neighbor whom I hadn’t seen for a while.  The young man who cuts my mother’s grass is coming to work on it.

10:45 – 11:00 A.M.  Serviced push mower…washed air filter, changed oil, and sharpened the blade.  Jeremy showed up in time to help finish up.

11:00 – 1:30 P.M. Working on my book outline, things are coming along nicely.  I think I am on schedule to finish it by August 18.

1:30 P.M. Warmed up some left-overs for lunch.  My dog, Phydeaux, watched intently while I ate.  Imagine that!

2:00 – 2:50 P.M.  Tied up loose ends in the office and worked Email, went down to the highway to get mail and take Mom’s to her.

3:30 Drove a short distance to a nice secluded back road to go for a walk for exercise.  Up and down small hills, some sun, lots of shade, zero traffic.  Had a nice walk while observing the birds, squirrels and cows.  No deer on the route today.

4:00 P.M. Back home, still feeling pretty good.  Did more research on my book.

5:30 P.M. Started making a post to put Mom’s bird feeder back up.  It was hanging between two trees, but the squirrels got too feisty with it and broke the rope.  Will just put it on a post this time.  Got the post parts cut and painted with the first coat of paint. Will finish the job tomorrow if I feel fairly well.

7:00 P.M. Had a nice supper with my wife.

8:00 P.M.  Finishing up today’s diary.  Time to get a shower and think about sleeping.

Good night, Everyone.

Thursday, May 17, 2007

6:30 A.M. Waked up feeling quite sluggish. Lazed around instead of hopping right up as usual.

6:45 A.M. Got up, started the coffee and took my medicine…feeling really slow; not that bad, but slow. Went back to bed for 15 minutes. Didn’t sleep well last night. Was up four times.

Summary: Pretty sluggish day, although I got a little energy in the afternoon. Didn’t get a whole lot accomplished but did a good bit of study for my book.

8:00 A.M. Had breakfast on this unusually cool morning….45 degreees F. My sweetheart fixed sausage, toast, oatmeal and green tea. The oatmeal “hit the spot” in the cool weather.

9:30 A.M. Piddling around in the office. Had a phone call from my friend, Gene Wilson, who lives in Davao City, Philippines. Nice conversation. Not feeling so good today. Maybe later.

10:00 A.M. Spent the rest of the day in the office at about half speed, but picked up a little energy in the afternoon. Spent most of the time studying in preparation for writing my book on Retirement in the Tropics.

7:00 P.M. Had a nice home-cooked hamburger supper with my dear wife and a nice evening visit.

9:00 P.M. Retired for the night.

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

“Oh, what a wonderful moooorning!….”

This is great, something I haven’t experienced but once or twice over the last few years….I slept through the night and didn’t wake up at all…not even once…not even for a minute.

Summary:  Waked up feeling great, was quite active during the day, but then started declining in the afternoon.  Had slow late afternoon and evening.  As I’ve been told this is normal for Lyme Disease.  As I said….You don’t want it”.  It can get nasty. I hope mine doesn’t.

6:00 A.M. Waked up refreshed and feeling good. Took my medicine immediately, as I turned on the coffee pot.

6:30 A.M. Medicine didn’t bother my stomach this morning.

7:00 A.M. Had a great hot breakfast with my wonderful wife, and compliments of my wonderful wife!

7:30 – 8:00 A.M. Worked on my travel web site. Now gotta go get ready to take Mom to town.

9:00 – 11:30 A.M. Took Mom to town. We ran a few small errands and made the inevitable shopping trip to Wal Mart. In the small town of Clinton, AR, Wal Mart has made sure that they are virtually the only place to shop.

I didn’t have anything on my list, but ended up buying a pretty potted plant whose flowers look like tiny blue trumpets, and another hummingbird feeder. I am busily adding hanging flower pots to my deck roof to work with the hummingbird feeders to attract more hummingbirds….I want to complain about how much sugar they use <GRIN>.

Being in the Ozarks and out of town, we get a large variety of birds dining on sunflower seeds, plenty of squirrels, uninvited guests at the bird feeder. We get plenty of hummingbirds, deer and rabbits in the back yard, and at night, an occasional armadillo pokes holes in the ground outsid the fence. I like the opportunities to watch the wildlife.

During the afternoon, as I worked in my office a little, I began to feel not quite so good. A reminder that I have Lyme Disease, so I was slow and not thinking really well, so I didn’t get much done.

6:30 P.M. Had supper with my wife…and nice conversation and visiting time.

10:00 P.M. Went to bed, hoping to sleep through the night again, but not counting on it.

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Good morning, everyone!

6:00 A.M. Waked up feeling pretty good. Medicine slowed me down a little bit, but for less than an hour.

7:30 A.M. My wife served a great breakfast, ham and cheese omlet with toast and green tea. I ate heartily and with enthusiasm. It seems that this may be a day in which Lyme Disease doesn’t interfere significantly. I hope so.

8:30 A.M. Took the trash out to the highway for pick-up and CLEANED MY DESK AND OFFICE. That’s a chore I am famous for neglecting, now it is sparkly clean (I use the term sparkly loosely).

I have been struggling with what subject to write a book about, but now have decided. Although I reserve the right to change the title without notice, it will tentatively be called Tropical Travel, How to Stretch Your Retirement Dollar. It will be about travel in and to Davao City in the Philippines, where prices are reasonable to low, life is good, the sun is warm, resorts are affordable for middle & lower income Americans, & the food is recognizeable and tasty.

The idea will be to introduce folks to a little known place where they can have an Asian travel adventure and not go broke in the process.

I think this should be valuable to baby boomers who will retire soon, because I think money is only going to get tighter for them. As the burden of Social Security taxes overwhelms our children, I think benefit cuts will be implemented and with corporate greed fueling higher and higher prices, some readers may discover Davao to be a place to retire to.

Oh, me! Such digression! I better get off here and work on the book for real, and leave this for Lyme Disease.

Monday, May 14, 2007

I am finding this Lyme Disease to be really interesting; and not really in a good way.  You just don’t know what to expect.

Summary:  Just when I thought I had identified a pattern, I think I discovered that there is no pattern, no predictability.

Felt O.K. upon arising this morning, and things went pretty normally, as in the past.  Mid-day tiredness set in and in the evening I am now really feeling not good.  Not quite really bad, but definitely not good.

6:00 A.M. Waked up and felt O.K.  Not great, just O.K.  Took my doxycycline, had the usual mild stomach upset for one hour, until breakfast.

7:00 A.M. Had good breakfast of sausage, eggs, toast and green tea, and felt pretty good.

8:00 – 10:00 Quiet activities, answering email, checking news and planning a book I want to write.

10:00 -12 Noon Worked on riding lawn mower, found problem to be simpler than I thought, repaired that problem and cleaned the carburetor and gas tank.

12 Noon – 3:30 P.M. Lunch, rest and quiet activities in the house. Didn’t feel really lethargic like in the past, but just a little tired, so I rested…retirement is not so bad after all.

3:30 – 5:30 P.M. Put the finishing touches on the lawn mower and cut a little grass with it.

5:30 -7:15 P.M. Feeling rather bad, so I came inside, took my medicine, watched the news and had supper.

7:30 P.M.  Still not feeling so hot, so will scrub up and plan for an early bed time tonight.  If I feel up to it, I may make some decisions on my book.

Have a good evening….y’all hurry back, ya heear!

Sunday, May 13, 2007

Happy Mothers’ Day to all you moms!

 I will do my daily entries as separate posts for easy locating by date.  I hope that is helpful and satisfactory to everyone.

Summary: Awake at 6 A.M., felt not so good, perked up, went to church, had some problems in the afternoon, after outdoor activity, rested, felt not too bad, exercised with outdoor activity and felt better.  See details below.

 Today I waked at up at 6 A.M. and felt mediocre, took my medicine, which gave me a slight stomach upset….very slight.  This is not really a significant upset,  just enough to make you feel less than enthusiastic and to make you wonder what the day is going to be like.

8:00 A.M. Had breakfast.  My darling wife surprised me with good ol’ down home southern biscuits, sausage, eggs and my usual green tea from Asia.

10:50 – Have been feeling  better since breakfast, have gotten ready and left for church.  Great services at our little church back in the woods in rural Arkansas. Spiritually uplifting….and that’s important to physical healing.

1:00 P.M. Just finished lunch.  Went out to work on riding lawn mower.  Having unidentifiable carburetor problems.

3:00 P.M. Had the mower running and cutting once or twice, but now it’s not running.  None of the shortcut solutions worked, so will have to get serious, take carburetor apart and go from there.  Feeling headachey, like a real pounder is coming on, my back has stiffened up significantly. This is not normal because I have been moving in various positions. Usually I can keep my back pretty limber by moving, so this is the result of the Lyme Disease.

3:30 P.M. Took two ibuprohen for head and back pain and laid down on the couch to relax stiffness.  This disease is bringing great uncertainty into my life because I am fit and physically able for a while, then not so fit and physically not so able for a while.  Noting the great impact of lethargy the other day, I have decided that I need to avoid driving very far by myself.  If I had been driving when it set in the other day, I doubt I could have stayed awake for 15-20 minutes to get home.  Of course, when we do find ourselves thrust into seemingly impossible situations, we usually find and way to get through it.  Aside from that, had I been out driving, I would have opted to have someone else drive me home.  That lethargy was like being drugged and losing control; being unable to stay alert and awake.

5:00 P.M. After a little relaxing and watching Eploring Arkansas on T.V. (one of my 3 occasional programs), I felt better.  My wife is working outside in the veggie garden, planting late, so I went out walked around a little, then filled the compost tumbler with compost material, gave it six turns.  Then, seeing the not too tall bushy grass and weeds, and 3 acres of it, I realized that it must be dealt with before it becomes very tall bushy grass and weeds, so I got out the push mower and began cutting around the garden, to reduce snake habitat near the garden, then some more over here, then over there…no I didn’t get it all done, but I got some exercise and finally quit at 7:10 P.M.  Got a shower and a cold drink.

Note:  I read that the people who have the best results in getting over Lyme Disease are those who exercise and sweat, and scrub their skin with a brush.  So, the grass cutting made me move and sweat, and I scrubbed me with a brush to remove any un-noticeable dead skin, and make it easy for the body to purge toxins through the epidermis ($50 word for skin), just wanted to let you know I went to school once.

After all this, I took my evening doxycycline…late…and waited an hour (good boy) before having a light supper. 

8:30 P.M. Got frustrated trying to find and actually be able to use software to make e-books.  Been working on this for five years, have downloaded several “HTML Editors” and either can’t them to unzip or to work.  One that I read yesterday said to do your work in MS Word, then “export to HTML”.  I pulled one of my Word Documents and learned that Word has no “Export” command…at least it doesn’t show up in the drop down menus. Ugh! I can do PDF’s, but they don’t have the appearance I want.

Anyway, I got frustrated and whined and called my computer fix it man and found out that he is not an ebook expert.  Visited with my wife for a while, she spotted two seed ticks on me (those are not the Lyme Disease kind) and pulled them off.

10:00 P.M. Went to bed feeling well, after getting over my ebook frustration.

In case I forgot, the tick that gave me Lyme Disease had a white spot on the center of his or her back.