If we were having coffee, I’d catch you up on how I’m feeling. Some days I’m really good, other days I do fine until the first stomachache hits. Diverticulitis sucks, and I’m not kidding. It sucks the life right out of you and makes you dependent upon having a restroom nearby, not to mention an understanding family while you moan and groan in pain until the latest bout passes. I was on two antibiotics and had to come off of one of them. The levofloxacin was affecting my joints and tendons. I could hardly move. I was so stiff and so sore I could barely walk. I felt 88 instead of 58. I called the doctor after seven days on it; I just couldn’t stand it any longer because it got a bit worse with each passing day. The day after I stopped it, the pain had receded but I was still stiff. Today I’m more myself. I can at least move around (I even did a bit of dancing). I’m still not eating very well (I’m afraid to as most things don’t stick around long). I’m down twelve pounds in a month.

I saw the primary care doctor yesterday; actually I saw my son’s doctor – what a nice man. He went over the results of my CT scan, and since (in addition to the acute diverticulitis) they also found two non-specific “bone islands”, they are obligated to follow up on them. I have to have a nuclear medicine bone scan (they’ll inject me with radioactive material to see if those bone islands are actively growing). If they are, I’ll need a bone biopsy to see just what they are. Chances are more likely that they are nothing, but they have to test and make sure. They are two very small spots – one of the top of my right thigh bone and one on my left pelvis bone. I had my flu shot while I was there, and my blood pressure was “textbook perfect”.

I’m working hard on getting healthy again. I’ve been passing my time quietly, trying to rest and get well. I’ve done quite a bit of reading. I cracked myself up the other day. I’ve definitely become a Kindle convert. I had a novel in paperback that I wanted to read so I picked that up instead of ordering the eBook version. I found myself doing the stupidest thing – tapping the page instead of turning it when I finished reading the page. I’m so used to doing that on the electronic reader that turning a paper page has become foreign to me.

I also finally gave in to temptation and got a new iPhone. Yes, I know Apple is rumored to release the iPhone 8 soon, but I also did some research and discovered that new model because it’s going to rely on Samsung’s screen technology is going to cost $1,000. That’s too rich for my blood just now. I’ll wait until the prices come down in a year or two. I’ve had an iPhone 6s for three months short of two years. It was a great little phone. I didn’t go for the Plus version when I bought it because I didn’t want the big phone. I gave in yesterday and got an iPhone 7 Plus. I love Apple and how seamless they make switching devices. Everything was backed up to the iCloud. I only lost a few text messages that I sent/received during the day yesterday. Everything else downloaded just fine – the screens were even set up just as they had been on my old phone. With Apple, all you have to do is go into each app, log back in, and you’re up and running. I only had two apps I had to delete and reinstall – WordPress and the Nokia Health Mate app. I also had to reinstall my iWatch, but that downloaded just fine from the backup from the day before. So far, so good with the phone. The size difference will take a little time to get used to; it may no longer fit in my pockets. It doesn’t fit into the cup holder in my car. It’s slightly bigger than my husband’s Droid phone. The graphics/screen are amazing, so much brighter than the 6 was.

I’ll close with a couple of squirrelly photos I took with the new phone. They’re not too bad considering I took them through a screen.

Coffee and book images courtesy of Pinterest