It feels like Summer out there!

Well, despite it being the last day of April, today definitely feels like the middle of Summer. I don't know how those Southern ladies managed in their layers of petticoats and no air conditioner! No wonder they were always swooning! Today is an ac, AND fans on, day!

I'm now indoors and staying in, while poor hubby is watching his NASCAR race, and charging the battery on the mower, so that he can go out and mow grass. It's way too hot, but needs must, and he is a Florida boy, born and raised, so he handles it far better than I do!

Hubby and I have been out and about today. We stopped by a place that sells washers, since ours has died the death despite multiple attempts to revive it. Unfortunately, despite posting yesterday on Facebook that they had specials going yesterday and today, they were closed, so we'll have to go back another day.

We then drove up to the Barnyard Flea Market on Highway 101, so that hubby could go get an adjustment with his chiropractor, Chris. I stayed in the car and finished reading my book - S. E. Hinton's "The Outsiders". I've never seen the movie, but - on the basis of the book - I now want to.

Coming back, we took Reidville Road down to Woodruff Road, so that we could have a snoop in the new Lowe's Food store that everyone seems to be raving about ... now we know why! It's a pity it's quite a ways from us, as it is awesome! But, what a lovely place! 

I saw the sign that said Sausageworks and steered my motorized cart in that direction ... so many choices! We got a basic American for dinner tonight, that I'm going to fry up with some onions, and have in a bun ... and a Bavarian for another day.

At The Beer Den, hubby tried a glass of a black beer ... as tasty as any English stout. I had a sip. Neither of us really drinks any more, just a rare one here  and there for him, and a sip for me, but seriously, that tasted so good, I could easily have downed a couple of pints in double quick time!

And their salad bar! Everything so fresh! I made myself a nice one for lunch, added some of their grilled chicken  ... wow ... that had such an exquisite taste and texture!

Added to NOT having a single incident so far today (and very thankful about that!) methinks today has been a pretty good day.  Hope yours has been as good, too.

Needing to Hit the Family History Again!

I do love doing my family history, but sometimes I can get very stressful and frustrating when searching for that one "right" person or document, from 10,000 or 20,000 or more, even after "narrowing it down" with what you think is "personal facts". I've had to leave it awhile as my blood pressure and other health problems hit. It was just too much  when I wasn't supposed to be getting "any stress".

I use a lot of different resources, and last year, treated myself to a membership with Ancestry.com ... and did my DNA.

It's interesting tracking my family members back, and exploring how life was in their eras. The "social norms", their struggles, fashions, what was "great" during their day, the highs and lows.

I've never been so much interested by the "so-and-so, born, died, onto the next one" attitude that some people have about their family history, simply wanting to fill all the blank spots on a family tree chart.

I want to know so much more. These ancestors of mine were real people. People who lived, worked, loved, grew older, many had very hard lives compared to the way we live today, and with a lot less creature comforts.

I remember talking with my nan once about all the changes she had seen in her lifetime (she was born in 1908 and lived to be 73)... from horse-drawn vehicles, to motor cars, to airships and aeroplanes, telephones (she never owned one), radio, tv, man going up into space ... all in one lifetime.

Myself, I was born in 1955, so remember black and white tvs with only 2 channels - BBC and ITV. ITV had the advertising, BBC you had to have the tv licence for. Then they came out with BBC-2, and later ITV brought out Channel 4.

I remember "old money" - "real" money - pounds, shillings and pence. I remember the days before the "Common Market", later the EEC.

I remember innocent playground games, jacks, stones, ball games, skipping games. 

I remember being a member of the Girl's Life Brigade and having "parade" through the town the first Sunday of every month, with the Boy's Brigade, their band playing awesome marching songs whose cadence kept us in step,  and certain other organizations with us.

I remember mini skirts, midi skirts and maxi skirts, along with hot pants and drainpipe stretch jeans. I also remember a Summer in 1980 or 1981, when I picked up a beautiful lace bodiced, tiered Victorian day dress, and spent most of the warm days wearing it and carrying a parasol! Yes, I was always a bit "different".

I remember, well into the 1960s, seeing bombed out houses, and cleared areas that had once been streets of homes. Some streets had rows of prefabs on them, to house those left homeless by the bombed out places.

I used to love seeing the horse-drawn drays delivering beer to the pubs, rolling barrels down through the trapdoor in the pavement to the cellars. The horses would always have their noses in a bag of feed, standing patiently, unphased by the noises behind them. Back then, London also had plenty of Victorian stone water troughs still around. Now, sadly, very few still exist.

Also Victorian tenements, long razed to the ground now in the name of "slum clearance" but magnificent with their stone stairways, huge, thick wooden doors, and brass knockers that resonated when you rapped them.

My grandchildren and great-grandchildren will never experience any of what my nan, and I, experienced unless I pass on my memories in the way my nan did with me. This pic is of me and my nan in 1962, somewhere in Cornwall.

Likewise, without my delving into the times that my ancestors lived in, I won't know or understand what they went through, and what "miracles" they saw and experienced.

So, I'm hoping that my health is now on the mend again, and I can get back into my research, as I find it so fascinating.

What a week! Happy Saturday!

It's been both good and bad, but overall, I am ending it in a decent frame of mind, and have possibly answered some of my own questions about my health issues, and will be discussing them further with my doctor and cardiologist over the next few weeks.

So, the week started badly. I was extremely stressed, overly emotional (very weird to be laughing at our dog Angel's attitude and suddenly find my giggles have become sobbing and tears!) and the heart monitor was filling with the palpitations overnight so that hubby was downloading daily. My blood pressure stayed high, in the 180s/90s and I began needing to take the additional blood pressure pill I'd been given on an "half a tablet daily as needed" basis (for if my upper number went over 150) every day, and my doctor even advised twice daily if it was not staying below.

I was in such a mess!  Worse, I was so fearful, I was afraid of being home by myself. More than afraid. I tried to sleep the day away until hubby got home from work. I knew it was irrational, but I was so so afraid of the palpitations, the blood pressure, worrying I might have a heart attack or stroke ... it was awful!

My breakthrough came Tuesday. It was pretty hot here in SC on Tuesday! More like Summer than Spring.

For years, I have had a Ventolin inhaler prescription, rarely do I need it. Usually in hot weather, when the air is cloying, and I was trying to get into my vehicle, in order to get it started, to be able to roll windows down, begin the ac running etc.

Hubby was in the Dollar store in Mauldin, and I began getting some palpitations and I knew my BP was going up as I was getting flushed and starting to feel miserable. Then I got the "elephant on my chest" feeling, and a bit of a lightbulb went off in my head. This has been a major part of the whole scenario with the palpitations, but in the heat, I got a reminiscence of similar feelings in trying to get into my car during hot Summers. I called the pharmacist at KMart, and he said he'd fill my prescription-on-record immediately.

After hubby came out of the Dollar store, we drove across to KMart and picked it up. My chest was still very heavy, almost like that feeling when you are grieving something deeply. I took a puff of the Ventolin ... and within moments felt much better.

That evening things began looking up. I had 2 or 3 more incidences where the palpitations began and then the chest heaviness, and I used the inhaler and eased it ... and my Bp stayed on a somewhat even keel, high normal like 148/90 but MUCH better than it had been for the previous couple of weeks at least!

I pondered on it, and began wondering. Asthma being a psycho-somatic disease, what if my fear during the palpitations had brought on a pre-asthma attack (I've never had a wheezing breathless incident so never considered myself asthmatic, although both my mum and son were) and the heavy feelings in my chest that had been accompanying the palpitations was not actually related to them?

I have also now been on the blood thinner for a week. I had been very afraid of starting that, and the insurance company had demanded preapproval to cover it, so during that time I had upped my aspirin to where I was living the old doctor joke "take 2 aspirin and call me in the morning", taking 2 regular 325 mg tablets a day (1/2 tablet every 6 hours). I had bloodwork done on the Thursday morning, as I collected the Eliquis in the afternoon. The lady who drew my blood was really good (I am SUCH a poor patient when it comes to blood) and had to get it from my hand as my veins, in my arms, decided to hide, deep. She began drawing it, and then said she'd stop, give me chance to relax, and try the other hand, as my blood was CLOTTING as she was drawing it.

That allayed my fear about the blood thinner ... I'd been taking 2 aspirin daily for a week and a half, and my blood was clotting as she was drawing it! I started thinking ... if my blood was that thick, no wonder I was getting palpitations with my poor heart pumping it around.

THANKFULLY, both EKGs done in the last 2 months show that I have a healthy heart, just something was making it do what it was doing!

So, just over a week in on the Eliquis and in the past 36 hours, not a single palpitation! Not even one that I didn't feel but the monitor caught ... NOTHING! God is good, and I am truly thankful!

*****

Wednesday was a fun day. I had my granddaughter pick me up and we went to Target for me to get my great-grandbabies, Daniel and Sami, their birthday prezzies. Sami's birthday was at the beginning of April and Daniel's was Thursday (their joint party is today). I got Daniel a Thomas the Tank Engine tee shirt that he chose, and a wooden puzzle, and I got Sami a denim romper and a kiddie cellphone that plays tunes and says things.

The best part though was Daniel riding on the ridearound shopping cart with me ... I was letting him steer, and then he realised what nanny was doing with the other control, and that was it ... he was driving the cart! Totally! We had a few hairy moments (I thought mummy was going to get run over a couple of times!) but it was fun!

After that, we went to Chick-Fil-A for lunch, and to let Daniel and Sami play in the play area.

It felt so good to be out and about and ENJOYING myself!

*****

Hubby is at work today, overtime, but when he gets home later, we are off to Studio Rejuvenate in Greer - him for a massage, and me for reflexology. Ah ... much needed! If you are local and want to go, tell them I sent you and you'll get $20 off your first appointment! I a so looking forward to my session this afternoon, it's another tool in my "getting well" resources tool chest!

*****

Have a great day and a wonderful weekend, my friends, and thanks for stopping by. Hope you have a relaxing one!

A beautiful little town

I needed a break from the house, this past weekend, so hubby and I took a short road trip down to Ware Shoals. There's a house we like down there, and though we can't afford it, we wanted to drive by and enjoy looking at it. It sits atop a hill, and was built in he 1930s. Has a wrap around porch. Yes, we just love to look at it and dream, LOL.

So we took the back roads out to Highway 25, and took a leisurely drive down. I'm not much for speed any more, and as I did the limit, others whizzed past me and were soon far ahead in the distance, and then out of sight. It made me realise, yes I'm finally old. I felt no urge to speed after them, I was too busy enjoying the scenery.

We discovered a cute little park alongside the river, and just pulled into a spot like everyone else there. some families were fishing, some swimming in the deeper spots, some cooking out and just sitting around talking and enjoying being together.

We had a young mama duck and her babies come sauntering by, and pecking at food crumbs left under the picnic benches.

It was very peaceful, just sitting there watching the water flowing over and between the rocks, and seeing the kids having fun.

It made for a relaxing afternoon. Heaven knows, I need relaxing afternoons! I had my stash of "emergency meds" in case I needed them, but it felt good to be out and about. It was such a beautiful day.

We also drove through the downtown area, it was so quaint. and I finally got to see a PIGGLY WIGGLY store after hearing my hubby talk about growing up with them in Florida (all gone by the time we lived there in the 90s) and various friends mentioning them, over the years.

The mill houses are still easy to spot, laid out in neat rows in what were once the mill villages. The mill is no more though, but this town retains the closeness of that small town living that is so welcome in today's harried, bustling world. It brings to mind a few country songs about front porch sitting, good neighbours and how things were a long time ago.

We'll definitely be going back!

The struggle is real

So much has been happening, and just as I think I'm out of the woods, something happens to remind me I'm not.

I must admit, I wasn't very happy last Monday, when the cardiologist office called and said he had looked at my interim monitoring (I'm only 1/2 way through the 30 days, today) and thought I had A-Fib so was prescribing Eliquis.

The idea of an anti-coagulant was a bit scary, as even on my 81mg aspirin, I bruise so easily, and have to stop taking it for a few days in order to let my bruises heal. Nonetheless, as scary as the diagnosis was, in reading up on it, sometimes treating it can lead to a cessation, depending on what was causing it.

So, I resigned myself to doing as the doctor ordered. I did contact my doctor and mentioned my concerns about bruising, and she gave me advice to stop taking my aspirin if that happened, and discuss it further with the cardiologist.

The pharmacy called.  Apparently, my insurance company will not cover it without prior approval. So I called the cardiologist office (Wednesday) and explained the situation, and that the doctor would need to get preapproval for it.

As of yesterday, my pharmacist still had not heard anything, so I called and left yet another message.

At the same time, one of my friends in England, who is now a surgeon in a big city hospital, suggested I get tested for H5IAA which apparently is some kind of adrenaline overload issue that occurs. Her concern was that, A-Fib usually causes LOW blood pressure, not the high that I keep experiencing. She said although rare, when kidney issues, high blood pressure and palpitations all come into play, that sometimes this can be the cause.

My doctor agreed to allowing me to be tested, so I made the appointment ... then got a call that it could not be done in-house, I'd have to go to Quest Diagnostics to have them do it. Hubby is off work next Friday, so that will be part of our day's errands then.

After a few days of relative peace, last night was awful, with strong palpitations that made me feel so sick and afraid. I took 1/2 a 325mg aspirin (since it's an anti-coagulant), and 1/2 a Valium (to help calm me) but did not sleep well at all, lay awake doing a lot of praying and trying not to cry,  and dozed on and off through this morning.

Thankfully, at 4pm today, I have my reflexology appointment, and I am so looking forward to it. I am very thankful I found Roger at Studio Rejuvenate. I know it is helping me so much, especially in calming me.

Have a lovely Easter weekend, my friends