February 5, 2025
UPDATE
My mother's birthday - Luane Lange. (Born in 1937. Died at 80 in 2017, following open heart surgery. :( Younger sister just had open heart surgery last week. She's doing much better than our mother (and father in 2007) did following open heart surgeries.)
Figured I should give an update, having read my last two entries. It's been a while. In case anyone is reading this. :)
Been traveling! Started that when turning 60. Now 63. Got Lyme almost 10 years ago. Still have symptoms. Living with it. Set boundaries. Making sure my 60s are not a repeat of my 50s, which were not so great. (I think a trip to Chicago to visit a family friend, including a car rental, was my first venture. That was challenging! How to get out of the rental lot? for starters.)
~Visited a close friend in California, and my great aunt Eunice, (almost 100 then!) and Uncle Jim. :) During the pandemic still! Mask mandate was still in effect - August of 2021.
~Traveled to St. Croix solo in April of 2022 - sick with pneumonia and the flu. Knew the tropical clime would cure what ailed me. It did! I was NOT canceling that trip. But realized I could die and no one would know, so I finally took my antibiotics and steroids. It was beautiful. Stayed at friends' place: each villa with it's own pool. Heavenly. Explored the island. Drove on the left side of the road! Didn't know until I was leaving with the rental that that was the norm. Might not have gone if I knew. Glad I didn't know. Cause I just followed the gate attendant's advice: "Keep Left". (Only one 4-way intersection on a curve kept throwing me a curve ball.)
~Then with high school friends to outskirts of Denver, and solo after that to a ranch in Wyoming, June 2022. Didn't know if I could do it. Same with the trip to CA and St. Croix. But did it. Rented cars each time. Didn't know if I could drive like I used to. I did. Where there's a will, there's a way. Many good memories. Hot water springs and my solo ranch campfire near Centennial , WY. 100 People! (They said it's less in the winter!) Loved the snow still in the mountains, while summer heat was starting down below - end of June. Solo drive in the canyons near Malibu was exciting - and beaching it.
Got CoVid for the first of two times after returning from Denver. When the mask mandate was first lifted. A slumped guy sleeping in my row for 7 hours (stuck twice on tarmack)... Had CoVid? Oy. I wore a mask - except in the bathroom. Seems like that's when I should NOT have taken it off. But 'recovered' fine - with Paxlovid, in Westport, at the beach, three alternating days in week. Ommmm.... was lovely. And Peaceful.
~Also went to Puerto Rico with hub for 60th. After I'd planned two solo trips, he seemed determined to take me somewhere. ok. It was good, all in all.
~I have a list - places to go... This year, 2025, going to the outer banks of NC with high school friends again. Hopefully will still happen, given all of the post election turmoil of having Trump in the White House again. oy.
~Last year we traveled as a family to London to visit our daughter and traveled on to Scotland, too. Scottish Castles, and London city (cabaret, Shakespear's Globe Theatre, Indian fare at Dishoom) and countryside (c. 1100 Abby) ventures! I went back again, solo, to France to see a college friend who had opened an awesome B&B, their "Tall House" she calls it :) in the French countryside, and then met my daughter in Paris - post Olympics. (Was cheaper post Olympics to Paris than the upcoming trip to NC!?) Loved having french onion soup, escargots, champagne and chocolote mousse in Paris! The year before it was great to visit with my brother and his family outside of Seattle - feeding animals from the car windows at a wild animal park. Wild! Albino peacocks there!
~Going twice each year to Kripalu for a yoga retreat - Self Care - Silence and Good Food. When it was canceled last March because of a broken pipe and damaged studios, I ended up with my GI tract going awry - for months. Many tests. Little answers. Oy. "This may be your new norm" said one Dr.
Needed that yoga retreat.
Tests then showed basically, ..... inflammation. Yup. That's what Lyme does. Inflame. Kind of like people are dealing with Long Haul CoVid now. Also Inflammatory.
Soooo... Other travels but I can't remember it all now. Looking forward to possibilities of Jamaica and Cape Verde in the upcoming years. Bahamas would be nice again. There's 200+ islands there! When we went as a family, we said it would be great to go back...Again, not sure what will be feasible with the orange man dictating.
Annnnd... Current Supplements include some of the same: D3 for immune (added the 3), B12, Astra for lungs (sometimes Astra C), and newer ones of CoQ10, Niacin and B6 2x/week, Magnesium 1X/week. Some for brain, including mushroom powders still (Lions Mane every months or so, and newer Stametz 7 intermittently). Still with OTC antihistimes (taking care of a cat since 9/23!), but trying not every day. Adding probiotic every day since GI tract went screwy last March/April/May.
Annnnd... The ARTS! - Will be what gets me through the craziness that is the Trump world. Dancing two mornings/week locally this winter - after tap dancing last fall and performing with the studio at our local Christmas on the Common events. Lovely studio is sharing their space. Right down the street. Literally a dream come true.
~Singing with SE Mass Social Justice Choir at BSU weekly for two years now - and helping to lead our Second Annual Community Sing this March. And this Friday singing at a high school reunion concert in CT. Been 45 years!! Learning music on our own. Afternoon rehearsal and then performance at night. Class of '80 is being represented by a bunch of us!
Voice isn't the same as my teens, 20s, 30s and 40s - but still not too shabby! :) Wanting to get back into Theatre. Lovely goddaughter helped me with new headshots. Slowly but surely. There's been a void in my soul. Hope to be with a newer Playhouse in CT this summer....(Have seen a bunch of their shows, as well as shows at a great old barn theater in Plymouth.)
Other Health Considerations Still:
~Acupuncture once a month - She's still awesome. Lots of needles - to lungs, knees, right shoulder, arms and legs, wrists, ankles, head, forehead, ears.
~Chiropractor was once a month - switching now to each 6 weeks. She's awesome. Uses a hammer of sorts. Get a tune up from head to toe!
~Sleep with mask and ear plugs. Usually by myself. Sometimes still need to vocally tone at bedtime, to quiet my brain activity. Also the music of Alexia Chillun helps. Brought back from a yoga retreat.
~Still hyper sensitive to sound and light. Wear the special glasses for night driving. Still can't see things right in front of me. Have started taking pictures of things I didn't see. And then, there it is! Or someone shows me.
~Had an issue of Tinnitus the first December singing with a new choir. Long High Forte notes did me in. Ringing 24/7 - around high C. And in the foreground. Much more debilitating than higher notes (higher than notes on the piano) ringing in the background. So started singing more Soprano 2 instead of Soprano 1.
~And still need quiet as part of every day. Hours of it, if I can. The world is so damn noisy!
~Since starting magnesium and B6, the plantars warts on my left foot are going away, slowly but surely! Coincidence? I've had them for years. Nothing worked before.
~Careful with my lungs (e.g. smoke from our fireplace did me in New Years Eve. oy. I made several rounds of broth with garlic and ginger to avoid pneumonia.)
~Cortisol, Epinephrine, Norepinephrine and Adrenilan 'jump start' the Lyme? I notice that I will wake up from a dream with my fascia vibrating somewhere in my body. Sometimes I've remembered the dream, and it's something that involves adrenilan, etc. Can be a happy dream, too. Doesn't have to be scarey or anxious. Those neuro chemicals come into play either way. oy.
~Our largest area medical facility closed in May 2023, with no notice. Finally reconnected with my preferred NP, when she returned to the facility as a different business. Couldn't get medical records for 1 1/2 years. ugh.
~Was walking regularly around the country block and elsewhere until I started dancing more this winter.
~Balancing priorities: Resigned from directing tone chimes choir at church. Was too much. Did for 17 years. A lot of work that people didn't necessarily realize needed to be done for it to be successful. Really enjoyed being with the ladies, but it was time. Also now managing the rental of a house with my sisters. Been working on finishing a basement room there. Doing much of it myself.
~Lost special people last year. Grateful to have spent time with my mother in law through last winter. (Now with my father in law on weekends, but not as often. Have to balance.) Lost my older 'sister' :(. Really miss her. Thought I would see her again. Lost the mother of a long time friend who I knew well, the mother of another close friend who I did not know well, and my second brother in law. :( And more people at church. :(
Annnd... Work:
~After doing my taxes since I was a teenager, and our joint/married taxes for 38 years since 1987, I have an appointment with a CPA at the local Council On Aging. Hopefully passing on that chore! :)
~Still with PACES out of Plymouth - since 12/20; and starting with my fifth ARC location next week - also out of Plymouth. Meaningful work. (Worked with three MA ARCs as a Music Therapist/in New Bedford, Fall River and Brockton - until Lyme hit, and one as a Case Manager/in Westwood- until CoVid hit).
~Both jobs are part time. Afternoons with PACES students, and starting newer mornings with ARC adults. Hoping to get to a 3 day/week work schedule mid week - as I near retirement in the coming few years. And be somewhere else on long weekends... a small shack near the water?
Ommmm....
May the force be with you.
