I've Lost 12 Pounds, but Don't Worry, I'm Starting to Find Them Again

The first couple of months of 2025 were challenging for me. Doug has been having more trouble walking. Thank God, when I had knee surgery friends came from Virginia to stay with us, caring for both of us.

Then, Doug's daughters Gracie and Charity came to stay, making sure I took my meds, cooking, and in general having a good visit. Just as Cha left, I started getting a fever.

The next day, I went to urgent care and found out that I had Flu A+. (I felt so special!) The next week and a half, my fever fluctuated from normal to 103 degrees, nothing sounded good for me either to eat or drink. For two days I had very urgent diarhea, and one day I suddenly vomited. The cough was actually the worst. I felt a cough coming on every two minutes or so, keeping me awake at night. I was thankful that Doug slept through it, and I prayed that he didn't catch the darned bug, and keep ME awake! I remember sitting out on the patio with my eyes closed, thinking that this must be what it's like to die. Doug tried to take care of me, but I worried about him walking around in the kitchen, so I tried to put together a few things for us to eat. After being cared for for so long, there were plenty of leftovers, and interesting snacks left by all the folks that had been working in the kitchen being our caregivers. I mainly wanted tea with a little sugar.

My daughter Jennie and granddaughter Raine had to postpone their trip to see us, and when they arrived they got to stay at a neighbor's place, but just before she arrived, Doug started His fever. We had, at the suggestion from urgent care, asked for an RX of Tamiflu in case he showed symptoms, so he started taking it right away.

I really wanted to be able to show Jennie and Raine around our cute little place, but even around me outside, we all decided to wear masks, not wanting to take a chance of her spreading the vile disease to New York. We sat out on the patio and played with the Play Doh Fun Factory on the table that I bought, (which was a big hit for the almost 4 year old),

and I really dazzled her with a little remote control car that she zoomed and crashed all over the patio.

I didn't have a fever anymore, but was still pretty exhausted (and trying to have a good time), as I went in every so often to check on Doug, whose favorite occupation during his flu was to sleep. Then, his old friends from junior high arrived on a planned trip from Colorado, (not staying with us) and insisted that they could visit with him. They finally decided that they should put on masks too. During the next couple of days, Doug's fever went down, (I kept thinking that he was going to go through all that I had, and couldn't believe his rapid recovery.) One night though, he sweated it all out, I guess, because he kept waking me to get him a clean shirt three times, since his was soaked through with sweat! He was also happy to see his friend and noticeably perked up to visit with him. Amazingly, he came through in record time and got to go out to lunch with them!

After spraying the house with disinfectant and both of us fever free, Jennie and Raine finally entered the house. I showed Raine what we call the "little room", a small bedroom at the end of the trailer part of our house, that we've made very colorful and inviting. she was in there for a few minutes with the door closed. I started hearing a ruckus in there. When she came out, I said, "Isn't it a fun room? One time though, another grandchild bounced on the bed and broke the glass on a picture frame."

She looked kind of sheepish, and said, " I jumped on the bed. . . . . but I didn't break anything!", and she smiled.

After we were all confirmed healed, and I felt so skinny having lost those 12 pounds, we had to start thinking about our annual St. Patrick's Day party. It turns out that the party had taken on a life of it's own. It's one of the favorite get-togethers of the year, here in our little trailer park, and friends, knowing that we had been sick, jumped in to organize it. Even our live entertainment, had been asked to make a return appearance from previous years,

Neil, and Mike Griffin

posters were put up and a sign-up sheet was hung on the bulletin board to say what folks would bring to the pot luck. I felt very taken care of. By the time it was to decorate, I was feeling more myself, and at the party we just had to express our gratitude to our little village that had helped us.

Now, it's almost the end of May, and we've relocated to a little cottage in Capitola, the same one we stayed in last year. The garden surrounding our place is magical, and I can walk, while Doug rides his scooter down to the Capitola beach, where we love to go many a day for a late lunch or early dinner, what we call "linner", trying to decide which restaurant has the best fried calamari. Um.....that's probably where I've found most of my lost pounds!

The iconic Capitola Venetian Court at Capitola Beach, California

Things aren't quite all hunky dory though, since Doug has had more trouble walking, partly due to a bad knee, a bad back and also swollen legs. I haven't written anything for a long time, since, as I told a friend, "Nothing funny has happened to us lately...". They responded that "Your blogs don't just have to be funny! Just tell us what's really going on!"

Well, for one thing, Doug always says I have permission to use him as my "fall guy" in my stories. Well, that has taken on a whole new meaning right now. Every few weeks, he's taken an actual fall, and when that happens he can't get up, just like in the old commercials for the necklace that you could order for a relative..... His knee, which is bone on bone, he says, feels like the bone is "slipping off" the bone, and just gives out. I've taken to following him closely behind, often holding on to the back of his jeans for support, sometimes giving him a wedgy.

Other times when he's fallen, we've tried in vain for a couple of hours in the middle of the night to get him into a postion to get back into bed, finally calling upon relatives, or sometimes a neighbor to help us. Most of those folks have informed us that they already have bad backs, so we feel it's not kind to even ask them. Then I heard that if you call 911, or the non-emergency number in your area and inform them that your husband has fallen, he's concious, but just needs help to sit back in his chair, they will send a fire truck with 3 strong guys to help. For free. We called them last week, after even with my pulling on his jeans, he was down again. They arrived in about 3 minutes, asked a few questions, and carefully lifted him back into his chair. All they wanted from us was Doug's name....no insurance card, and when we commented on that, they said, "This what you pay your taxes for!" Doug asked them their names. "Peter, Andrew and Paul", they said, smiling. "Sounds like some of the apostles", I said. They smiled again. This service is something everyone should know about, as long as you don't have to be taken to a hospital.

At the place we're staying, we've had to make some adaptive adjustments. At a huge thrift shop in Santa Cruz, called GreyBears, I found a raised toilet seat with handles. We made a temporary change to the shower, by putting in a handheld model, and ordered a bench-style shower seat to make it easier for him to take a shower.

As his Aunt Madeleine once said, "Getting old ain't for sissies". The walk with a walker out to the car has become more difficult for Doug because of the flagstone path, along with leg weakness, so now he drives his mobility scooter out near the car, walks with the walker to the car, and I push the scooter back into the yard. I drive it back out when we get back from errands. Then he walks with the walker to it, and drives it back to the house. The other day, he was saying that maybe we should find a different place, but then he knew how much I love it here, and it's a small price for me to pay (only about an added 5 minutes), to be able to stay till the end of summer in my "happy place".

Oh, Capitola in the summer! The city of Monterey blocks much of the fog from coming to us, and there's often a festival of some sort along the esplanade at the beach. An added attraction this year, is that my cousin Lonni will also be staying close by in the month of August. We'll have some major cousin bonding then, since our families spent many days at the beach together in the 50's.

Lonni and I at the end of Soquel Creek in about 1957.