May 22nd


So, you like my voice? Hear it nice and strong, that deep bass resonance, that firm confidence and proud Pacific Northwest lack of an accent?

Better enjoy it on the written page. I sure don't have it issuing forth from my throat right now. I'm talking little. My voice is very rough and broken, and I have to stop halfway through most sentences to catch my breath. I sound like a guy named Paulie or Mikey from the Sopranos or Godfather talking from his deathbed to his consigliere.

Hazel drove me and sat through another ER visit with me. My feet had turned into hams, with the edema pitting up to the upper calf. I'm on an increased lasix for a while now, with orders to get on a "super low salt diet". Much of the sodium in my diet comes from mixing oyster sauce or soy sauce or tankatsu or such into marinades, that sort of thing. I rarely add salt itself. Well, I guess the potato chips have counted for some of the salt burden.

Any suggestions for a low salt diet that will satisfy a man brought up on meat and potatos will be gratefully accepted. Any low sodium sauces out there that I can adopt to where now I use Worchester or oyster or the others mentioned above? Help me out here, Blue Blazer Regulars.

They did an EKG, which was within normal limits, did a UA, and the ER doc and nurse both gave a lot of commiseration and support. I've got to continue on the medicines I'm on and realize that this will heal, but it will heal according to the schedule of the virus, not mine, and that it will definitely take much longer than anything I wish for.

The scary stuff, coughing until I pass out? It's still happening. I'm trying to train myself to start breathing deep when I realize I'm in the middle of it but that is difficult. Opinion seems to be that it is simply a vasovagal syncope, with the coughing fits apparently emulating the valsalva maneuver. The good news last night? I slept fairly well from about 3 til 8 a.m. The bad news? Along the side of my bed I have an old headboard I use as extra shelving - and I woke up when my face crashed into it in the middle of an out of control coughing fit. No damage, and I'm as beautiful as I ever was, but damn that hurt!

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Captive Audience, Incorporated:

In the last day or so - GoodFellas, Point of No Return, Monsters Inc., It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World, and as soon as the Mariners game is over in a few minutes it'll be Braveheart, followed by Space Cowboys. And doggone proud that in a month filled with sick time at home the only television I've watched has been the M's games, along with pre and post shows. No CNN, no daytime soap operas, no prime time - I have no idea what the shows are that are 'prime time' these days. I'm sure I'm losing cultural references not keeping up on Buffy the Idol Survivor, but I'm not gonna lose sleep over it. Any friends, fans, or strangers looking to keep me culturally elitist can check in with my Amazon list.

Ya know, this is a really shitty way to have my most prolific journaling month. I'll keep you posted, however. Typing it saves my voice when friends ask me, "So, like how are ya dude?"

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Thanks to Janey, by the way, for fixing the glitch that has been plaguing my archive page.

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