Tuesday, October 17, 2023

Daily Update, October 16, 2023

    Well, today started okay, with me reading comics and articles until I thought to double-check when an appointment for my hearing aids was. I thought after lunch but wanted to double check. {Smile}

   It was 11 am.

   I checked the clock. It was 10:50 am. I called and let them know I'd just realized I should have started out a while back. They assured me that I should just come, and they'd take me when I go there. I love how flexible they are. {Smile}

   I contacted Uber. The driver was nominally 11 minutes away. I did my head and arm swinging exercises while waiting. When he got here, he said the directions were wrong. I looked, and they were trying to send him to O'ahu, a few islands up the chain from the Big Island of Hawai'i, where I live. I finally thought to tell him it was the little blue house at the base of the extra steep hill. He immediately knew exactly where I meant and took a route that got us on the right side of the street and everything. {Smile}

   There, they took me fairly promptly. He had something new to dry out my hearing aids. There was a fair bit of moisture in there for something their size, so it took a while. I remembered to get batteries this time, and deliberately took more than I hope I'll need, so that if some don't last as long, I should still make it to my next appointment without an extra trip. {cross fingers hopefully, Smile}

   I contacted Uber, and they took me home. Then I fed Val... Had to pull him out from under the desk and take him to the food. He wasn't moving well, and didn't eat immediately, but he did throw up after I gave him some liquid medicine. It came up yellow, even though the medicine and the water he's been drinking were clear. The vet was closed for lunch, so I ate my own lunch. He eventually ate a little, but I was worried, so I called the vet, and they said if I could get a ride, they would take him as an urgent care patient for a higher fee. I called Alan, and he said he'd come on over when he was done with what he was doing. I got Val into his carrier... he was awfully sluggish, and not moving well, though he was moving a bit better than earlier. Alan got us down there. We had quite a talk on the way, partly about being concerned about Val.

   I waited most of the afternoon for them to squeeze us in between other appointments. They took a blood sample, which was smaller than they wanted for all the tests, because he was weak and dehydrated... {bite lips} When they brought the results they could get back, he was hyperglycemic, with his blood sugar up in the 500's, when they want it below 300 for a diabetic cat, and in the 100's for a normal cat. She said I could try to treat him at home, but I ended up checking him in. I'm not sure my nursing skills are up to helping him as much as they can when he's this weak. {worried look}

   I called Alan, and he took me home. We talked about Val and other things on the way back, including my time int eh hospital when my blood sugar got even higher than Val's, despite human blood sugar normally being lower than cat blood sugar. I made it through - that was the five-inch boil driving it up, and an artificial sweetener not letting it drop as fast as expected. It took me months if not a year or more to recover, and a fair bit of physical therapy, too. {resigned look}

   I got back too late to read to Mom: it was already time to eat dinner. The nurse said I could catch up tomorrow. {bite lips}

   I didn't get into City of Heroes: Homecoming until after dinner, and a short text conversation with Nox on the chat server. I found Perogies and Meroa eager to run a farm - a player-made mission with minimal story run for the stuff you collect doing it. They wanted to each run all three of their accounts. We me on my one account, that left one space. Qworty was on, so I asked if he'd like to join, and he did part way through the first farm. Then we ran a second farm. After that, Perogies wanted some story. Meroa dropped to one account, and soon Perogies did, too. They asked if I had a story arc. The character I was on had one open. I noticed that Paradox said on the chat server that they'd hopped into CoH hoping to play but found me on a full team. I told them they could come now, because it wasn't full anymore, and they did. Then I invited Soothing Darkness to join, but she was busy role-playing. We ran the rest of the arc and finished shortly before I meant to finish. Perogies said they had to go, and left, but I said I had on more mission in me. We did one, and qworty and Paradox left, so we broke up. {Smile}

   I did my walking exercises next, then got to talking to Meroa on the chat server until it was time to start my salsa dancing. I did my warmup despite being a bit tired and was glad I could just sit until the next set. Usually, I'm up feeding Val and giving him his medicine for at least half my break. Then I did my less structured set for over 20 minutes of salsa dancing. I really wanted to do more, but I was drained after the long afternoon sitting and trying not to worry about Val at the veterinarian. {worn smile}

   I read comics between and after the salsa dancing, as well as writing this up and reading one of the web novels I'm trying. I find them interesting. I haven't read much serial fiction that isn't comic books, but these are just that. {Smile}