This past week has been a mixed bag of joy and despair. As I have surely mentioned before, my grandson was picked to play on the hockey team that was participating in this year’s Provincial Hockey Tournament.  His dad, his papa and another dad drove out to Provincials with three very excited and hyper players. They left Thursday, March 4th at 4:30 PM and arrived at Provincials 5 hours later. The team played very well and came home with the bronze medal. My grandson phoned me from the arena late Sunday afternoon to tell me the good news. Papa and the two dads were beyond tired when they arrived home at 10:00 PM on Sunday night, March 7th.  Grandson wore his bronze medal to school the next day.

My daughter and I spent a lazy weekend at home while the guys were at the tournament. True to form, daughter made a fantastic fresh shrimp salad on Friday evening. She decided to bring her two cats to my house for the weekend so she didn’t have to run back and forth to feed them. This provided a bit of excitement for us. My cat was not impressed with his house guests.  After he established his boundaries with hissing and growling, the three cats co-existed for the remainder of the weekend. My daughter and I kept ourselves entertained with reading; sleeping, movies and watching the cats interact.

Yesterday afternoon my parents and I drove into the city to attend the wedding of our cousin and niece. The roads were good on the way into the city but coming home was another story. While we were at the reception it started to rain.  The temperature dropped so the roads were covered with ice on the drive home. To say we were relieved when we finally got home is an understatement.  I hate icy road conditions.

What I found very distressing yesterday was how difficult it was for me to get ready to go out to the wedding.  Simple things like putting on panty hose and make up become a real chore with this all consuming bone pain. By the time I was dressed the sweat was running down my face and neck. When I got up on Saturday morning I realized very quickly that I was having trouble keeping my balance just walking around in my house.  I swallowed my pride and took my cane to the wedding. 

To back track a bit, my grandson came over on Friday night for his weekly sleep over. Since I felt miserable that evening I promised him that I would watch a movie with him on Saturday morning. He woke me up at 8:30 AM with a big smile on his face and a cheery “Good morning, Nana.” I have to confess that his Nana was a supreme grump and I felt horribly guilty. This poor child should not have to face a grumpy Nana just because she feels like death warmed over.  I do try very hard to hide how miserable I feel but sometimes my acting abilities fail me.  After 20 minutes I managed to get this wretched body of mine moving and we drove to McDonalds to pick up breakfast which we ate while watching our movie. After the movie I showered and with much moaning and groaning got dressed for the wedding later that day. When I was done I walked into the computer room where that sweet child was playing computer games. He looked at me and said, “Nana you are beautiful.”  That precious grandson of mine always manages to brighten my day.

This coming week Wednesday I will see No Name to discuss the outcome of my appointment with the hypertension specialist. We also need to discuss the results of the tests No Name ordered on January 27th. Since I have a copy of the test results I know that my cortisol level and potassium level were low.  I do think that the low cortisol level and low potassium level are partly responsible for the extreme fatigue and pain I am experiencing. Dare I hope that No Name will have a sudden burst of inspiration and actually come up with some ideas?  If he does the shock might just be too much for both of us.

Since Seattle is experiencing much nicer weather than we are, I have decided to pack up my decrepit body and fly out there for a visit. I  am looking forward to spending time with my son and daughter-in-law.