Post 199: Rest day for me, but not for my Darling.
Stood on a bridge made to last
Water white and very fast
Dreaming of a cup of tea
But first I need another pee
———
For me, it was a rest day at our hosts’ house to get my legs back in shape.
For my Darling, it was a drive to see some crazy beautiful views across lakes and valleys with our eldest and his wife K.
Is it time for me to start investigating my swollen feet and calves? Oedema is the number one suggestion, and I’ve seen it in my mum for the last few years of her life. Her heart, like mine, was the culprit — it just didn’t work that well. On top of that, the steroids will have made things worse for me lately.
I’m a leg-crosser and always have been. My Darling is forever at me to unfurl my legs and put my feet up, but I don’t find it easy — especially with the rib being so twitchy. So I’m never going to recover very quickly all the while I’m not helping myself, am I?
The rib has been good all day, and I’ve kept a low profile — only chatting with Mrs J my wonderful host — but even though I’ve done bugger all, I still feel the shutters coming down over my eyes mid afternoon. So off I go to bed and have an incredibly long snooze for three and a half hours. By the time I wake, my Darling’s back with some snaps of the white water rushing under a famous bridge (the name of which eludes me just now). The views she’s seen today were definitely worth the walk — a walk I wasn’t for enough for.
It’s a real shame that ageing and medical conditions affect every part of life. What used to be a full-on holiday where we did what we liked, come what may, now means we are picking and choosing between active days and rest days. It’s something I’m not coming to terms with very easily.
Our hosts made a tasty dinner — bowls of steaming Nasi Goreng. A simple and cheap recipe, but a massive winner with us. Eating the rice around the fried egg on top, leaving the runny yolk intact so it drizzles into the rice below, then scooping up the remaining eggy sensation last — “Indonesian fried rice”, who’d have thought it would be so good?
Afterwards my Darling and I retired to the TV and watched the dancing on BBC1. It was the Halloween special — ugly ghouls everywhere — but that didn’t stop the dancing, which was mostly top class.
My Darling stayed up while I headed to bed early and made the most of my rest day. The oedema has subsided, but as soon as I stand — it’s back.
Just another reminder that I’m old and tired and need to look after myself better now.
The big powwow is in eleven days, when I’ll hopefully find out what’s going on inside me. The MRI scan won’t make it to the meeting, so I’ll only be diagnosed on the CT and bone scans, like it always used to be. I’m okay with that.
Can they tell if my rib’s broken though? (I do hope so).
Tomorrow there’s a food fair by the cathedral and music within — plenty to enjoy, even if it rains.
Have a great day you-all 
