This is the update for Monday, October 17, 2016.

Sean is off this week, and I’m still on leave from work, so we decided to vote early today.

• Woke up at 5am; poked around online for a couple minutes and then went back to bed
• Awakened at 10am by loud pounding that I thought was the door; Sean went to check and it was actually hammering coming from the upstairs guest bathroom, the one with the leak
• Went ahead and got up
• Had protein shake and morning meds
• Messed around online for awhile, including researching local election candidates and discussing them with Sean
• Took a shower and got dressed
• Went to J. Christopher for brunch with Sean, where we discussed the four proposed amendments to the Georgia state constitution

I sort of created my own meal from their a la carte menu: one poached egg, one grilled chicken breast (no salt), one English muffin, and one fruit cup. I had to leave some of the English muffin and fruit as I got really full. It was a great meal.

• Went to the Cobb County Civic Center for early voting

This actually took awhile; there were far more people there than I expected. First we sat down at a long table and filled out the application for early voting. Then we took our forms with us and got in a very long line. We were in the line for maybe 45 minutes. It zigzagged twice, ran across a room, zigzagged again, and then went into the actual voting room. A man at the door checked everyone’s application and ID.

We walked down a short hall to another door where a woman pointed us to check-in stations at the center of the room. There, a poll worker took the form, checked ID, and generated the voting card. Then we could finally vote, at any open station. This procedure wasn’t different from the other times I’ve voted in recent years, but it took so long to get to the end! But finally we got our Georgia Voter stickers and headed out.

• Stopped at Starbucks for a pumpkin spice latte (Sean) and a chai tea latte and protein bistro box (me)
• Spent time with Sean at home
• Poked around online some more, reading, messing with some works-in-progress, and rearranging my files on Google Drive
• Picked up chicken tenders and fruit cups for dinner
• Continued doing that online stuff
• Had a late snack of Swiss Rolls
• Went to bed at around 2:30am (what is with my sleep schedule lately?)

• Got up at 8:30
• Got dressed in workout clothes
• Had protein shake and morning meds while reading a bit online
• Started an assignment from my therapist that I have to hand-write
• Went on a 38-minute walk (35 minutes walking, 3 minute cooldown)

It was warm, but not overwhelmingly so. I tried to go a different route than I have been, by cutting through the forest, and then cutting through the swimming pool area in my branch of the apartment complex, then going all the way down the second branch of the complex, then exploring a path I’d never noticed before on the way back up. It was pretty fun.

When I got back I had to shower immediately because I’d gotten pretty sweaty.

• Showered
• Considered dressing in PJs, but then figured I’d need to go shopping so put on regular clothes (shorts and a Star Wars t-shirt)
• Started a load of laundry
• Made brunch for Sean and me

I was going to just fry some eggs and have waffles on the side, but then I asked Sean if he wanted some and he said yes, so I decided to try poaching the eggs, since that’s his favorite, and putting them on top of the waffles. The eggs I used were a little old; you’re supposed to use fresh ones. So they did not congeal nearly as well as one would have hoped. Still, they came out fairly well, with nice runny yolks and firm whites! I wasn’t sure I’d be able to do them right so I gave the first ones to Sean, but then the second ones actually came out looking a lot better. Usually I like to give him the best-looking cooking result. Whoops.

Sean put maple syrup on his, which sounded weird to me, but he said it was good, so I put it on mine as well. I…am not sure I will ever do that again. It’s just kind of weird. Possibly because I used whole-wheat waffles? It was just a lot of flavor going on that didn’t quite harmonize for me.

• Put laundry in the dryer; as Sean was getting in the shower, did not start the next load yet
• Did some reading and chatting online
• Watched last night’s SNL cold open with Sean
• Made voting plans with Sean
• Took first load out of dryer; started second load
• Folded and put away first load (a ton of whites)
• Cleaned up kitchen from brunch and started dishwasher

I want to strip the bed and wash the linens. It’s been awhile. I also want to wash the couch cover and quilt. Right now, though, I am feeling tired, and I might just lie down for a bit.

• Did not actually lie down but did sit and rest for awhile, reading
• Unloaded second load of laundry (dark clothes) from dryer
• Put third load (sheets) in dryer
• Put fourth load (towels) in washer
• Folded/hung and put away second load

I want to list all those things out because it’s time consuming!

• Ate some trail mix because I was hungry
• Sean said he was hungry too, so we ran some errands and then went to dinner at our Thai place
• Then we went to Dairy Queen and I got a mini M&M Blizzard
• Came home and ate our Blizzards
• Pulled sheets out of dryer and put towels into dryer
• Put sheets back on bed
• Changed into pajamas
• Poked around online
• Folded and put away towels
• Read stuff online for like, hours
• Went to bed at 1am

• Got up at about 9:50am due to staying up past 2am
• Had protein shake and morning meds
• Wrote and posted a story
• Took a shower but put clean PJs on instead of clothes
• Had a PB&J, a yogurt, and some blackberries for lunch
• Wrote a letter and carried it out to the mailbox in my PJs
• Ate some chips
• Goofed off online
• Copied some stories from a social media platform to a story hosting site
• Put on a bra but did not change clothes otherwise; went out to deposit a check and pick up dinner
• Ate dinner with Sean and watched this week’s Designated Survivor

Dinner was Arby’s. I could only eat half my deli sandwich because the whole thing contained nearly all my daily sodium, and I had already had about 1000mg already today. I factored in one potato cake and ate a few curly fries. I also got a seasonal pumpkin cheesecake shake, but I only had a couple sips of it.

Designated Survivor was pretty heavy this week, with decisions made that are going to have some huge consequences. It’s such a good show.

• Goofed off online some more (checking for comments on my stories)
• Ate Swiss Rolls because I had calories left and I was hungry

I am not sure I’m actually getting enough calories, but I’m getting enough protein so maybe that’s all right? It’s just that I don’t absorb all the food/nutrients I take in, so I’m supposed to go over the normal recommendation. But limiting sodium makes it hard to get a lot of calories. The Swiss Rolls put me over on sodium but I’m still below MyFitnessPal’s automatic calorie limit for today, which is 1660. I dunno, man. Generally I only pay attention to sodium and protein and I don’t worry about anything else. I might ask my doctor about this, though.

• Went to bed at 2am again because I am ridiculous

This is the update for October 14, 2016 but I am only just now writing it, after midnight

• Got up at Ridiculous O’Clock (6:30am)
• Had protein shake and morning meds
• Made myself eggs and toast with blackberries
• Goofed off online
• Watched a 1995 speech by Hillary Clinton (it was great)
• Watched a couple episodes of Kyou Kara Maou
• Ate a bowl of cereal (my first milk in quite some time, may have been a mistake)
• Watched Star Wars: The Force Awakens
• Snuggled with Sean
• Cooked dinner

Yesterday I made steak; tonight I made teriyaki chicken. Rather than buy a big bag of frozen chicken breasts, I had purchased two refrigerated breasts. I marinated the chicken in half a tablespoon of teriyaki sauce (to cut down on sodium), started the rice cooker, grilled the chicken, and stir-fried some veggies. I don’t have a wok anymore so I just used a big pot. It worked fine. The chicken came out pretty well; the veggies and rice were awesome.

• Ate dinner while reading online; took evening meds
• Sean and I watched a speech President Obama gave in Ohio, which was quite good
• Ate some dark chocolate craisins
• Spent time with Sean (whenever I say this it is code)
• Got back on the computer at around 11 and read some more
• Ate some yogurt raisins and potato chips
• Still am somehow 251 mg below my sodium limit; not so great on calories though!
• Stayed up until after 2am writing a story

How has it already been 30 days since I started working on rebuilding my heart function? Looking back, I have done pretty well overall. My weight has stayed pretty consistent and I have been good about getting exercise, with the exception of a few days after I got home from New York. I’ve been eating pretty well too (again with a vacation exception). In general I think I am okay. I will keep working.

Sean had to use my shower this morning due to the hole in his ceiling. I was sort of already awake at that point, drifting in and out of the fuzzy well I could get up now I suppose haze. So I went ahead and got up.

• Got up at around 8 and dressed in workout clothes
• Drank protein shake and took morning meds
• Poked around online

It was pretty chilly outside when I got up so I sort of wanted to wait until it warmed up to go on my walk. I have probably waited long enough now.

(The Rogue One trailer came out this morning and I may have gotten just a wee bit excited. Just a tad.)

• Went on a 33-minute walk

I waited so long that I could not have gone any later. The walk was fine; it was sunny and clear and there was a nice coolness under the trees. My knees and ankles were complaining last night so I didn’t jog at all today. They felt fine after the walk.

• Took shower and got dressed
• Bolted down some yogurt and trail mix
• Went out for a facial and a massage

I have a membership at a massage chain because I went there one time and they talked me into it while I was in happy massage afterglow. This month I had three services built up from not going for three months, so I used two and a half of them in one shot.

The facial was interesting. Some of the treatments burned my face a bit. I liked having my face massaged, and my hands, forearms, and shoulders. But I’m not sure I really want to do it again. The esthetician said she thought she had removed 10 years from my face, but I really do not see a difference.

The massage was great. I asked for whatever the masseuse recommended for someone who had just started walking and jogging and had sore legs, along with occasional pain in the knees and ankles. I also asked for a neck and shoulder massage, since I cannot get enough of those. It was all wonderful. She massaged my feet and it felt so great. The leg massage was great too.

I was a little dazed when I finally left, after two and a half hours!

The plumber arrived almost as soon as I got home. It was a different plumber from yesterday. He kept running back and forth from the upstairs neighbors’ apartment to ours. It was Very Exciting. ;) Eventually he left to get a different truck. I was heading out to pick up groceries for dinner when he got back, so I rolled down my car window and told him he could still get into the apartment, as Sean was now home.

• Went to Kroger and got groceries for two dinners

Rush hour traffic was absolutely stupid coming home. At one big intersection, cars turning left across my lane kept blocking everything so that we were all stuck and missed the green light. After a couple turns of this, a bunch of cars just swung out to the left and went all the way around the obstructing cars. Since I was in the middle of these cars, I went with the flow rather than be an obstruction myself. It was crazy.

When I got back, the water had been turned off, so I settled in at my computer to wait for the plumbers to be finished. (The original plumber was here, and so was his little brother, with his own van.) They finished up sometime after 6 so I started on dinner then. I asked Sean if he wanted steak or chicken and he chose steak.

• Seasoned the steak with pepper and salt substitute
• Peeled and sliced a russet potato and put it on the stove to boil
• Started a pot of mixed vegetables on another burner
• Put the steak on the George Foreman grill
• Watched everything, flipping the steak when necessary
• Plated our dinner

Sean cleaned his plate and brought it to my office to show me :D “What?” I asked. “It was good,” he said.

I am really impressed with how low my sodium count is today. Only 662 milligrams. This doesn’t even seem possible, but I’ve logged everything. So that’s pretty awesome. (All I had for lunch was yogurt and trail mix, so that probably helped!)

• Went to bed at 10pm

• Got up at 8:30
• Drank protein shake and took morning meds
• Messed around online
• Took a 37-minute walk with two brief periods of jogging: one for a minute and a half at the beginning and one for five minutes at the end

The jogging was interesting. I was frustrated with myself for not going walking at all since I’ve been back, and the air was cool and crisp, and the sun felt nice, and the trees are changing color, so I just felt energetic. After five minutes of walking at a brisk pace, I jogged around a flat parking area, down a hill, back up the hill, and around a corner. That took about a minute and a half, and then I was gasping for air and feeling like I wanted to die. So, I stopped jogging and walked kind of slowly for the next 20 minutes or so, up the hill leading away from our area of the apartment complex and then across the bridges.

When I hit the 30 minute mark of the walk I felt like jogging again—I was heading downhill this time—so I did, and then I kept jogging even up the next hill, around the corner, around that flat parking area again, and down behind my building. Finally as I came back around I couldn’t jog anymore, so I slowed to a walk, and Runkeeper told me I was at 35 minutes a couple seconds later. So the second jog was about five minutes! And I didn’t feel nearly as bad after that one as I did after the first.

I am going to eat as well as I can today. I need to finish off some leftovers, but I’m going to track them properly and make sure I don’t get too much sodium.

There was another good thing about yesterday that I forgot to mention. My lab results from Monday came back, and my creatinine is back to normal. This means that my kidneys are doing okay. In the hospital my kidney function was quite low, and at my first doctor’s visit after the hospital it was still low, so we were concerned. I have focused on drinking water since then, and that seems to have gotten things back where they need to be. My labs also showed that my potassium level is good, which is good for my heart.

• Chatted online and poked at some story ideas
• Took shower and got dressed
• Went to the salon for a wax (I’ve been doing this for eleven years damn)
• Came home and ate lunch
• Went to the doctor

My doctor upped my dose of lisinopril as expected, and we came up with a plan for my return to work. I asked her about anti-stress medication and she said to discuss that with my PCP, so I will make an appointment for that.

• Came home and managed a ton of paperwork for my leave of absence/disability claim

At about this point Sean came home. He was pretty tired from work so he got into PJs and cocooned himself on the couch. Then a plumber came to check on the leak in his shower. He was like, “I need to cut open your wall. Maintenance will patch it up tomorrow. Or we could schedule me to do this right before they come?” but I was like “Eh, go ahead.” So there is a huge hole in the ceiling now. He looked at the pipes and then went upstairs and looked at our neighbor’s shower, then said someone would come to finish fixing things tomorrow. During all this excitement I:

• Called to order sushi and went to pick it up

Later in the evening our neighbor took a shower, and water poured out of our ceiling. I took a video.

Sean and I ate the sushi and watched last week’s episode of Designated Survivor and honestly I cannot recommend this show enough, it is so interesting. Then we wrapped up with an episode of 30 Rock, and Sean went to sleep. I poked and prodded at some stories again for a little bit, then also went to bed, at around 11:30.

There’s someone I love who I am worried about right now. I think she is doing what she needs to do and will be okay, but in the meantime things are hard for her. That’s about all I’ll say for the sake of privacy, but I wanted to have a record of it.

I am doing terribly with my diet and exercise since returning from New York. Actually I started messing up while I was there, and have simply continued here at home.

I started the day out all right, with a protein shake, but then various things happened and I got annoyed and I ended up getting more for lunch than I should have, and dinner wound up being fried chicken tenders with fries :P Here’s the rundown:

• Woke up at 6am for some reason; went to the bathroom
• Went back to sleep at 7am
• Alarm went off at 9am; hit snooze until 9:30
• Forewent a shower; got dressed
• Drank protein shake and had morning meds
• Continued reading very long story until time to leave for therapy
• Went to individual therapy, discussed various things, got kind of upset

My therapist wants me to learn how to have a presence/power in person, not just online. She thinks this will help me pursue happiness in relationships and life goals instead of collapsing into myself. She says normally she can get a handle on a person right away, from the way they project themselves, but that I do not do this; I am “wispy”. We talked about how I have few local friends and spend most of my time online. And we talked about other stuff. And ultimately I feel overwhelmed and not confident but I’m hopeful she can help me find my way. I don’t know.

• Headed back to my side of town; went to run errands before going home
• Picked up prescriptions
• Had my eyebrows threaded
• Picked up protein shakes from Costco
• Got myself some Starbucks

This is where I indulged. I had intended to do a Tall Chai Tea Latte with a Protein Bistro Box, but I got a Venti chai instead (which is enormous). I also got a pumpkin scone, which was not in the plan at all.

• Came home and ate while finishing up reading the very long story (intermittently chatting and reading other things)
• Spent some time with Sean when he got home
• Messed around online some more
• Went to pick up dinner, which, as I said above, was chicken fingers, sigh
• Ate dinner and took evening meds
• Continued messing around online, reading and chatting

Kathryn also had a bad day today, which sucked.

There was one good thing about today, and that was this video:

• Got up at 8:30 after a somewhat fitful sleep
• Weighed myself
• Had protein shake and morning meds
• Set my computer back up in my office (I’d just stayed on my little laptop in bed yesterday)
• Wrote a political post on Facebook (I know, I know)
• Took shower and got dressed
• Met up with Sean at J. Christopher for lunch; had eggs, bacon, fruit, and an English muffin
• Picked up some prescription refills
• Went to the doctor’s to have blood drawn in advance of this week’s appointment
• Gassed up my car
• Poked around online; started reading a very long story
• Picked up dinner (a burger, fries, and a shake, sue me)
• Ate and took evening meds while continuing to read the very long story
• Continued reading the very long story, but got tired
• Went to bed at midnight

I totally slept in today. It was great.

• Got up around 10
• Weighed myself (I’d been doing it at the Airbnb but the scale seemed different? But I’m where I should be, fluids-wise)
• Had protein shake and morning meds
• Went through all the mail Sean had left on the kitchen counter
• Cleaned the kitchen
• Threw out my dead “get well soon” flowers
• Started a load of laundry once Sean was out of the shower
• Ran the dishwasher
• Did another load of laundry
• Wrote a short story
• Went to couples therapy
• Went to dinner at Benihana
• Poked around online a bit
• Spent some time with Sean
• Went to bed at 11:30pm

Today I am traveling! So I did my morning routine a bit out of order.

• Got up and dressed in workout clothes
• Put whites in the washer
• Went on a 34-minute walk (I was so anxious to finish! Also it was really chilly out so I wore a hoodie. Fall is finally here)
• Put whites in the dryer
• Drank protein shake and took morning meds
• Got started packing
• Went out for Thai food with Sean
• Finished packing
• Went to the airport
• Got through security only to discover my flight was delayed
• Purchased and leisurely ate a salad
• Finally got on flight
• Ate Biscoff cookies because they are my favorite part of flying Delta
• Arrived at LaGuardia, grabbed luggage, got a cab to my Airbnb
• My host graciously carried my suitcase up all the stairs
• Unpacked (the room is so nice, it has a computer desk AND a roomy wardrobe)
• Went to BED at like 2:30am