Richard and I are back from Oregon, basically feeling fine but still testing positive for COVID. It's been 8 days since Richard first tested positive (6 for me) and we only had noticeable symptoms for a couple of days. The test line no longer blasts forth within 15 seconds, but it does develop eventually. Probably aren't super-contagious at this point, but trying to be careful. So we're cancelling tonight's game party and skipping the Minnstf meeting tomorrow. 

Last Sunday I attended the DFL District 62 Convention at Washburn High. It was the usual mixture of fascinating and intensely boring. The best part is probably meeting the candidates, or at least seeing them speak in person. And It's kind of interesting to see how government works from the ground up, even the boring parts. One thing about government at this level is that you have a lot of down time in which to get to know your neighbors (much of the time you are sitting in a tight group with the other delegates from your precinct, which in Minneapolis means that they are all people that live within about 6 blocks of you). TIP: try to change seats within the precinct seating every now and then so you don't have to make conversation with the same stranger for 6 hours.

At one point I took a break and went out in the hallway, met some enthusiastic young Samuels volunteers, and the next thing I knew I was creating a sub-caucus for them. (They couldn't do it because they were staff, not delegates). That turned out to be more fun than I expected. We merged with the other Samuels sub-caucus, sent out scouts to Uncommitted/Issues caucuses on the other side of the auditorium, and managed to grow our sub-caucus from 16 to 28. This gave us enough for TWO delegates! And then we had to figure out how to pick our delegates and alternates, which is not as intuitively obvious as you might think. Nobody in our group was very experienced at this, and a couple of the natural leaders that emerged had radically different ideas on how it should be done, but it was worked out peacefully in a surprisingly short time. Kind of like an escape room, with all the emergent group problem-solving. Really, there's nothing in caucus-based politics more fun than a walking sub-caucus. 
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On Monday I had a cardioversion procedure at Methodist Hospital to get me out of persistent AFIB (Atrial Fibrillation). It's the 3rd time in 3 years that I have had to do this, which I can live with. If it gets closer together I might consider drug therapy, but the last time I tried that the treatment was worse than the problem, so I'd rather not. Two days before the procedure I impulsively ordered a Kardia Personal EKG monitor so that I would be able to see if the cardioversion worked or not without having to wear a Zio monitor. I'm glad I got it, because (like last year) it took a few hours for my heart to settle down into a normal sinus rhythm. Once it finally managed that, it's been fine, and I feel considerably less anxious about it. 
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It is now a month since Richard's pneumonia and he's doing fine. The antibiotic they chose briskly dispensed with the unidentified pathogen, and the lingering cough has finally cleared up. Curiously, a nurse has called 4 or 5 times since he was discharged just to see how he's doing. It's nice to know that they care, but... why haven't they ever called about anything else? Nobody called me to see how my heart was doing after the cardioversions. I don't remember anybody calling him after his hip replacements, or even the heart bypass. How about you? Has any medical establishment ever called to see how you were doing after a medical procedure?  

He was out of bed eating lunch when I visited today, and looked great. Better color, better spirits. They expect to keep him 2 more nights to finish up the medication protocol (5 infusions/day of 2 different heavy duty antibiotics)

Thorin and I took him in at 4-something am this morning and spent about 5 hours in the ER (Methodist Hospital).  He had a wracking cough, fever, low blood oxygen readings, physical unsteadiness, and confusion. The fever was never over 102 and the oximeter readings were inconsistent, but the last two symptoms were very disturbing. 

It's a good hospital. They were very thorough, testing him for UTI, COVID, RSV, flu, strep throat, and abdominal obstruction. Everything was negative except the obvious: pneumonia in one lung, lower lobe. More specifically: "Airway thickening with mucous plugging particularly in the lower lobes. Patchy peribronchial infiltrate in the right lower lobe. Mild bibasilar atelectasis"

They started treating him right away with fluid infusions (he was seriously dehydrated), Tylenol, and a couple of big doses of antibiotic. After a couple of hours of this he was much less feverish and more coherent. I hesitate to say "better" because once he was more aware of what was going on he became increasingly uncomfortable and unhappy, especially when he realized that he would have to stay overnight. Probably 2 or 3 days, in fact. When Thorin and I finally left a little before noon he was still in the ER exam room waiting for a room to open up. 

When I asked ER doctor how bad the pneumonia was, he cheerfully said, "At least it wasn't septic shock."  Indeed. Yes, Terry G was on my mind. 

That's the handy-dandy home sample alternative to a colonoscopy. Good to know. 

Other than that, it hasn't been a great week. Dentistry, sewer line woes, and second-hand tragedy.  

... inconveniently while visiting in Portland. It is very much like COVID except with less sore throat (and 2 negative COVID tests), Just sick enough to feel sorry for myself, but if the cough stays where it is in the upper respiratory it will end up in the rear view mirror as a mild one. But I am prone to bronchitis and post-viral asthma with fall colds, so not out of the woods yet. COVID isn't the only disease with post-viral sequelae. 

Should have known this would happen as soon as I posted about not having a cold for 3+ years. 

I injured my foot on Wednesday at about 11 am. My Internet-fueled diagnosis was "Grade 1 Sprain." I applied the recommended (and obvious) treatment: ibuprofen, cold packs, elastic wrap, sit around with my foot elevated and whine. The Internet predicted that the swelling should go down in 48-72 hours, and it was starting to get minimally better by the 2nd day. Then on Saturday morning (exactly 72 hours) I suddenly realized that I could walk on my left foot!  Slowly and painfully, but at least I was no longer dragging the foot behind me on the ground. I was even able to get a shoe on! So clearly the swelling was WAY down, if not completely gone. Attended the Minnstf meeting on Saturday and nobody even noticed that I was limping a little. On Sunday I actually biked to the Farmers Market and back (a grand total of 2/3 mile, but less painful than walking, which is what I was trying to determine).

So it looks like it's  going to be fine. I'm not quite up to trying another trip around the lake, but maybe later this week. 

It's August 15, which (as I still have to remind myself every year) is the beginning of fall in Minnesota. And just like clockwork, here comes the ragweed pollen!

Just posted as a reminder to myself and a heads-up to others with hay fever.

In this case, the ever-enthusiastic silver maple. Which doesn't seem to be bothering my nose this year, but Holy Cow are my eyes itching! Nose is actually much better than 2 weeks ago (juniper/poplar presumably).

And it wasn't particularly easy. I waited until 3 months past my COVID infection and then discovered that there was a month's lead time on scheduling vaccines at Health Partners. Cub Pharmacy seemed to have loads of appointments, but the scheduling engine was completely broken (which I suppose is why all those appointment slots were open). I found out later that they did accept walk-ins, but you couldn't tell that from the website. 

The Walgreen's scheduling engine worked fine, but there were no appointments anywhere in less than a week and no convenient ones in less than 2 weeks. I went with convenience over urgency, and my appointment finally came up yesterday. Went relatively smoothly, except for having to fill in the check-in form again on paper because they couldn't retrieve it from the computer system. The shot itself is so tiny - I literally didn't even feel it. My arm is a little sore today, but no other side effects. I got my flu shot last week (walk-in at Cub) so I don't have the double sore arm problem. I'm glad I didn't get both shots at once, since last week's hi-dose flu shot gave me a sore arm for a week, much worse than usual. 

The guy who gave me my shot said that demand has been sky-rocketing in the past week or two as people look towards the holidays. There has been a lot of official hand-wringing over the low uptake of the new booster, but I can't help but think this is partly illusory. Perhaps the health care establishment hasn't noticed that they are providing 3 contradictory sets of advice on boosters (as well as giving the impression that boosters are trivially easy to schedule, which I did not find to be the case).

1. Get your booster NOW NOW NOW! Do not delay! This is very important!
2. Unless you've had COVID in the past 3 months (as maybe 20% of the population has) in which case you might as well hold off
3. Or unless you have travel plans in the next few months, in which case you should wait

I'm probably not the only person trying to follow recommendations 2 and 3, while underestimating the scheduling issues.