CHF Recovery: Day 46

  • Got up at 9am
  • Checked weather and got dressed in workout clothes
  • Had protein shake and morning meds

I want to mention again that the last time I saw my doctor, which was October 12, she doubled my lisinopril. I think that is why for the past three days I have gotten dizzy immediately upon standing up. However, it seems like sort of a delayed reaction, since I started doubling immediately on October 13.

While poking around old CHF notes I came across this story of how my heart medicine dehydrated me last time and I ended up in the hospital. Will definitely have to watch that.

I also want to mention that my heart doctor is the same heart doctor I had back in Augusta, Dr. G. I think she said she moved here in 2010. And we, of course, moved here in 2011. Convenient! I first saw her in the hospital; she was the doctor doing rounds the day of my release. She told me where she practices, so I set up my followup appointment with her there.

  • Had planned to simply walk, shower, and write today; phone went off and reminded me I have individual therapy
  • Took a quick walk with no warmup or cooldown
  • Showered and got dressed
  • Had a yogurt and trail mix for lunch
  • Hurried off to therapy

It turned out my appointment was actually for 11 but I had entered it in my phone as noon! But my therapist’s noon appointment had canceled so it worked out! o_o

Therapy was good today, we covered two main things. My homework is to tell myself, “I am 100% confident I will succeed at what I attempt.” This is because I am often 100% confident I will fail.

  • Went to Buford Highway Farmers Market
  • Came home
  • Put groceries away and unpacked this week’s HelloFresh box

The package of pork had a tear in it, so pork juice had gotten everywhere. This was disgusting. I washed off all the meat packages and put them in individual baggies, and I threw away the recipes and coupons because they had all gotten blood on them. (The recipes are also online, fortunately.)

  • Divided a bunch of snack foods into individual serving baggies (this took forever):
    • Three different kinds of rice cracker that I got today at Buford Highway
    • Two bags of Baked Lays
    • One container of “heart healthy” mixed nuts
    • One party bag of Peanut M&Ms
  • While I was doing the above I ate a red bean daifuku and some of the crackers.
  • Emptied and loaded the dishwasher
  • Scrubbed out the sink
  • Scoured the counters
  • Reminded Sean that he had said he would wash a pan and a knife, so he did that
  • Put protein shakes in the fridge
  • Sat down on my computer for awhile, resting and reading and chatting
  • Cooked dinner

Dinner was HelloFresh Chicken Paillard with salad and sweet potato wedges. I burned the sweet potato wedges to hell. Guess I should have turned them halfway, or not peeled them, or both. Sigh. Some of them were salvageable. The salad was amazing, though; it was just spring mix and halved grape tomatoes tossed in a mixture of honey, lemon juice, and olive oil. I’ll need to remember that. And the chicken came out good as well. The recipe called for cooking it in a pan, but I did it on the George Foreman grill, and it worked fine. There was a lemon juice and olive oil marinade, and then once cooked there was “chimchurri” to go on top: parsley, cumin, lemon zest, garlic, olive oil, salt (substitute), and pepper. (I had the chimney sweep song from Mary Poppins in my head for the rest of the night.)

  • Ate at my desk while reading online and chatting
  • Cleaned kitchen and started dishwasher
  • Ostensibly went to bed around 11, but stayed up reading in bed until nearly 2am

It was a mistake to stay up. I was already feeling weird about some interactions I’d had earlier in the day, and then I checked Tumblr after I was done reading and saw that I had a message from a different person, so I responded to it, and that turned into a horrible conversation. Never talk to people when you’re half asleep.

I was already feeling pretty down on myself and reading the story made me feel like I am a terrible writer, which did not help. (It’s a beautiful story that makes my heart literally clench. I feel like I could never write anything like that. Oh but “I am 100% confident I will succeed at what I attempt!!!!!”)