Whirlwind

Life is a whirlwind of activities, challenges and surprises. I haven't posted in several days, but I haven't been idle. 

Last week I had two chemotherapy sessions (injections), three blood draws, three transfusions, and a telephone consultation with Dr. Cook. Since I already had a transfusion scheduled for Monday at 8:30am this week, we moved my Monday blood draw up to Sunday morning. Then, on Tuesday, we had a day off! Whew!! Wednesday morning is when the miracle happened. 

I had a blood draw at 7:15am on Wednesday (yesterday), and my platelets had increased... significantly. My hemoglobin also increased marginally, and my neutrophils tanked. The chemotherapy is doing its job. Because my platelets were up, not only did I not have another transfusion today, but we got another day off. Tomorrow brings another blood draw at 7:15am, but that also means we can do our curbside pickup of groceries at the Walmart down the street from the clinic. 

If you are a praying person, please pray with us that my platelets have begun to stabilize, and barring that, that I will be able to get a transfusion tomorrow if it is needed. As you can see we have been chasing our tails a bit. The Ford doesn't quite know what to make of the whole affair, but at least she knows the way to the clinics by heart. 

Come back with me now to Monday of this week, the beginning of a week of temperatures in the upper 90s. One of the challenges I have been facing is awakening at 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning with a pressure headache that makes it difficult to sleep. In the morning, when I sit upright and my sinuses begin to drain and I have a cup or two of coffee, the headaches disappear. When I am awake in the night, I often work on problem solving.

Sunday night, or rather in the wee hours of Monday morning, it occurred to me that the air conditioning dries out the air, and it also runs a lot in the evening and night time on these very hot days, which means that if there is dust in the air ducts, it gets blown into the bedroom. "Well," I thought, "I wonder how long it has been since the air filter in the HVAC system was replaced." So, Monday afternoon, I opened up the chamber where the filters (there are two) reside. They had  been replaced in April when we had the furnace serviced, but they looked clean so I put them back in place and replaced the panel, which is strangely designed (you have that on the authority of an erstwhile dentist) and awkward to remove and replace. 

When the house got really warm in the afternoon, I set the thermostat to cool things down, but alas the system failed to run. I tried a number of troubleshooting steps, but no joy. It was then that my words from last winter came back to haunt me. 

We have some dear neighbors who snow birded in Arizona last winter. During the coldest stretch we had all year, the husband contacted me and asked me to check on their furnace, because his thermostat phone app was showing that the furnace was apparently not running. When I went over to check, sure enough the furnace was dead as a door knob. Fortunately, they were due to return in a couple of weeks, so I did what I could to keep the pipes from freezing, successfully, I might add. 

When they returned home, they had their HVAC, the same model as ours, replaced. That's when those famous words of mine were spoken. "Yes, dear, I agree. We will definitely look into replacing our HVAC system that is 30 years old and showing its age." We have a nickname that floats around our family, Talk-is-cheap-Waugh. 

Now I really meant to look into it, but I just hadn't yet. So, when the AC wouldn't go on Monday afternoon, I was feeling like a heel. The last time the HVAC let us down was during the famous ice storm of March 2021. It's not like I don't know it is on its last legs.

Well, the good news is that, on Tuesday morning as I wracked my brain for answers, and after I had called the HVAC  company to schedule a service call, I remembered my foray into DIY furnace repair. I thought, "I wonder if I did something that messed things up." Sure enough, when I replaced the awkward to replace cover on the filter chamber, I got it on crooked and the safety cutoff switch did its job, preventing the system from running. Once I got it on correctly, the system started working. Hallelujah!

Today, I ordered a new furnace and AC unit!

Tucked in among all of these other activities, I did some remodeling/updating of my home brewery. After all, life goes on. Life needs beer!

So, we have been living up to our commitment to "Live like you are healed." 

Every day is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it!