Phlox from the big garden bed. And a little spider.
Don is doing better. He’s still very weak, but he’s reading and watching the very old prehistoric television set that is in our bedroom. He slept a lot yesterday, still sweating out the toxins in his body. He’s been up this morning to have a cup of coffee, take a shower, and now he’s back in bed eating some oatmeal.
A very tense and scary few days here at the cottage, because, even though my instinct said it might be Lyme (I was the one who first suggested it), we are in the middle of a pandemic and there were moments when I was very fearful. I don’t need to say more than that about it, but I will say that when the antibiotic started to work, I was incredibly relieved.
By the way, several years ago when I contracted Lyme disease, I had to get a prescription for Doxycycline. My health insurance at the time didn’t cover the prescription cost. It was nearly $200 and we didn’t have much money but we had no choice but to pay for it. The price had skyrocketed for some reason – greed, most likely. I used to dispense Doxy when I worked at the animal hospital and it had never been that expensive. I don’t know it that’s still the case, but with Medicare, Don’s prescription the other day was just over $4.00.
Don has had Lyme twice before this bout. I’ve had it. Our dogs had it. We’re well aware of the symptoms and how to deal with it. It could have been the tick that Don saw. Or he could have had a bite that we never saw. I do think, and I’ve heard this from others, that Don might be more susceptible to even a minor tick bite given his past history. One of the most important centers for the study and treatment of Lyme Disease is in Florida, near Mere’s house, and she has worked with people who come there to be treated. When I had it, I had a fever and mild chills, but nothing like what Don has experienced every time he was diagnosed.
I’m grateful that he’s slowly improving. Thank goodness. I’m still sleeping downstairs because his sleep rhythms are off and he should feel free to move around without having to worry about me. Yesterday, I made a run to our local farm stand for vegetables and fruit, all of which we had run out of. And I’ve cooked dinner for the past three nights – you know things are bad when that happens.
Thank you for your kind wishes and all your prayers. We’re definitely seeing light at the end of the tunnel.
Rest in Peace, John Lewis. A true hero has left us. As he said, we have to make ‘good trouble.’ That is the way to honor his legacy.
Stay safe.
Happy Saturday.
kaye says
Hi,
I am happy and relieved for you and Don. I hope each passing day makes Don stronger.
Take Care,
Kaye
Park City, UT
RIP in Peace, John Lewis an American Hero.
Claudia says
Thank you, Kaye. Stay safe.
Shanna says
I’m glad to hear that Don is improving and finding some relief for his illness (Yay Medicare!) and some quality time for you with Stella. Wishing for normalcy and other miracles.
Claudia says
Same here! Stay safe, Shanna.
Marion Shaw says
I am very happy to hear Don is on the mend. Wishing both of you the best.
Marion
Shaw
Claudia says
Thank you, Marion. Stay safe!
Ellen D. says
So good that Don is improving – that was scary for you both. John Lewis worked his whole life to improve things for others. I read this quote from him on Facebook today: βIf you see something that is not right, not fair, not just, you have a moral obligation to do something about itβ.
It makes me wonder – besides voting in November – what can we do now to make things better? I want to help but don’t know where to begin.
Stay safe, Claudia, from COVID and ticks!
Claudia says
I don’t know either, especially when self-isolating.
Thanks, Ellen. Stay safe.
Deb Cox says
lovely to hear the continuing good news claudia. take care of you both and hunker down for a bit longer. (-:
Claudia says
Yes, we will. Don is still exhausted and weak. He gets up for a while and has to go back to bed. Stay safe, Deb.
Donnamae says
Oh…so good to hear Don is getting better. What a relief for you both. Take care! ;)
Claudia says
Thank you Donna! Stay safe.
tammy j says
I’m so relieved that the very worst appears to be over for Don.
this is a time when we take nothing for granted and are wise to take things slowly.
and you’re right about the cost of medicine. if there’s a profit to be made from misery…
you can rest assured ‘they’ will make it. part of being in a capitalistic society I guess.
I’m so glad he’s getting well!
and I also read about the honorable John Lewis. another True Hero has left us.
xo
Claudia says
Thank you, Tammy. Stay safe!
Tana says
I came right here this morning to hear an update on Don. And now my morning is made and I am going to dance and sing. So glad he is feeling better. He will be in my prayers till I see him playing his guitar! You are in my prayers too, and maybe a little prayer for you both because your cooking sounds a lot like mine!
Claudia says
My cooking is okay, I just don’t like to cook. But Don is by far the better cook, Tana! I made him a mean grilled cheese sandwich with pickles for lunch, though. Thanks so much for caring. Stay safe!
Vicki says
All good news about Don. It’ll be a healing weekend for you both. Lyme disease sounds just awful.
(I had all these scenarios in my head like OMG, the what ifs; if Claudia has to take him to the hospital and then be required to leave him because of Covid regulations. Trying not to catastrophize(!) but we’d had that happen in our family all too recently when the husband of my husband’s niece had a sudden stroke at age 42 and all she could do was watch them wheel him into the ER yet not be by his side, but we all have to get our minds around the fact that this could be the case in any kind of scenario in the new World of Covid, like when I caution my husband to be careful on a ladder or any number of things revolving around accidents in the home, for example. You know, you could get a bad cut or something, not just break a leg. [Then of course the thing unspoken of please not let it be Covid for Don. But you hadn’t mentioned that he was coughing or out of breath. Would be so hard not to panic, so kudos to you Claudia {steady as she goes!} for remaining calm and rational, reasoning it out early-on that it did sound like Lyme. ])
When I was thinking about this the last couple of days, I was wondering too about his long walks, if Don picked up a tick/bite from those locales although it would seem he was on well-trod paths? Seems more likely he picked it up when moving the rocks, when he was just trying to tackle a project and do a nice thing.
I am so unfamiliar with ‘woods’ because I live in a more arid area with less vegetation, here out West. Our mountains and lake areas don’t have woods; rather, scrubby stuff/brushy vegetation. It’s pretty barren, like Baja Calif/Mexico (especially now in summer; the beach cliffs are just bare). I’m always intrigued when I see photos or TV shows about places like Maine, or even our NorCalif environs/Pacific NW where you see green trees/forest growing right to the water line.
You guys have done so much hard work already on the yard, maybe you can take the lazy days of August at an easier pace. Enjoy the end of summer, out on the porch; reading, sipping, dozing.
Just wanted to say, too, interesting of what you were saying about getting Lyme more than once and how successive bouts are more significant. I watched this happen with my mom over the years and also myself, when both of us at diff times in our life suffered mild-to-moderate heat stroke, how we increasingly were much-more affected by getting overheated than anytime before. I guess it’s this way for probably a lot of health conditions and diseases.
We’re all just cyber friends but this is very real and I have been totally worried for you both.
Claudia says
No, he had no problems with breathing or a cough or a headache, which is why we tended to think it was Lyme. Lately, Don’s walks have been on safe ground so I don’t think it came from there. It would have had to have been a recent bite. Maybe it was the one we saw on him, but the bite itself seemed pretty mild, the tick hadn’t been on there all that long. But Don has had more than one bout with Lyme, so maybe it hits him more intensely. We moved the rocks quite a while ago so it wouldn’t be that. It might have been from moving logs. We always check each other for ticks, so it’s a mystery to us. Thanks so much, Vicki. Stay safe!
Vicki says
Main thing now is the medicine. Isn’t tetracycline a fairly potent antibiotic? Sure good to have them when we need them. Maybe you just have more ticks than usual this year; indeed a mystery. Sounds like all you can do is live with it, it’s in your environment, and just keep checking each other for bites and the ‘bugs’ themselves (I tried to read a little; they’re not insects, they’re more like spiders and mites and scorpions). Does it calm down after summer? The ticks are worse in summer? Or just that in other seasons, you’re not in the yard as much? Gosh, if I ever went to your neck ‘o the woods, I’d sure not know what to do or what to avoid. Clueless! At least you’ve lived there long enough to know how to be on the alert and of course I’m sure when/where you lived in Michigan, you had woods too, true?
We’re so hot and dry in my part of SoCalif right now, that we don’t even have mosquitoes. (Just gophers, ruining our vegetable garden.)
Writing this while on edge, approaching 10pm, due to neighbors two doors down having some kind of noisy get-together for a Saturday night with people pouring over into the street from the house. My husband went out to walk the dog and I told him he’d be outnumbered if he challenged them on the fact that a good-sized gathering is wrong-wrong-wrong (our small-town police department can’t or won’t do anything about this sort of thing, not yet anyway), so don’t stir the pot (he’s had words with the homeowner before, on another subject, and this guy is scary/in-your-face confrontational; I’m sure they’re Trumpers, we’ve had enough hints, and of course none of them wear masks). It’s probably one of those Covid Parties you see on the headline news, where law enforcement (Florida) is trying to nosedive them with helicopters to break it up in the streets; these young folks in their late teens and 20s, oblivious to the fact that getting the virus could make them very sick or take their life, not to mention these lingering effects of headaches, brain fog, fatigue, etc. I want to think people are good in my locale but, in this case, lunacy and selfishness. Don’t care who they make sick; don’t care if their own hometown hospital gets overrun with stricken patients. Part of the problem, not the solution. And SoCalif needs a solution posthaste because we’re in trouble here with Covid. Big trouble.
I saw that piece on one of the evening news programs (ABC?) where they highlighted a zippy/spry 90-something-years-young Rosie The Riveter (worked on planes I think right out of high school during WWII), now sewing up a storm in 2020 on her sewing machine at home, making masks to distribute, and she said ‘people are great’ and talked about how, during the war, every man-woman-child rallied with the cause to help defeat the enemy. It’s similar here, as we’ve all spoken of before; this is just another enemy. But the diff is that we’re divided-not-united and not motivated to work as One, to fight. Clearly the difference almost 80 years later; collectively, we’re apparently/obviously a different people, not for the better. Disheartening. (Like this neighbor, big flag waver, red-white-blue yard decorations front and back [and all year long], but is this patriotic, having these parties in the middle of a raging epidemic when everything you read and hear discourages these kinds of gatherings [which are clearly more than just family members]? Is this good citizenship? NO.)
Wear a mask, save yourself, save somebody else. If only ALL Americans could embrace a cause and a slogan like that (I’ve seen those old vintage posters from the WWII years that would go in shop windows, unifying/encouraging messages to citizens to do their part, everybody in it together); maybe some of these current commercials/ads on TV will help (we’re getting them a lot now here; several insurance companies & others are putting them out there, promoting masks particularly) but do some of these young teen, 20-yr-olds even watch TV anymore, or is all their news from social media (in which case I hope they’re seeing some of those pleas [it’s amazing/maddening that they can’t look outside and beyond themselves; be part of the greater good; makes you think, do they have any voice of authority they respect{??}, do they have an inability to listen and absorb and understand instructive information that involves them{??}; do they have no mentors in their lives giving them any kind of guidance and direction{??}; do they not value the lives of parents or grandparents or neighbors{??}; what, WHAT????]).
We’re just waiting (daily), and thought it would happen before now, for SoCalif to go on a total lockdown like they had in Italy. Gonna have to do something drastic to get people to adhere to advisements. Fine them if they’re in public without a mask. Fine them if they gather. I guess ‘question’ anyone who’s out that doesn’t need to be; and, sure that doesn’t feel ‘free’, it feels oppressive … but these aren’t normal times and it’s TEMPORARY restriction; just trying to get the numbers down and not overwhelm the medical system. But also fine them if they keep running a non-essential business when they’ve been told they need to temporarily close their doors again. And that’s sad; you have to feel for the owners of those businesses, of course. What other alternatives, though? Act now, not too late.
It’s a shame it has to get to that point. But we’re just about at that point in SoCalif. My husband just lost another former co-worker to the virus yesterday. It wasn’t her time. But it happened.
Vicki says
I think I was just insensitive again. Bombarding you with a rant when you’ve still got enough on your mind about Don. I’m sorry, Claudia; forgive me. I get caught up in this stuff because it’s so frustrating. Too much just makes no sense these days.
Claudia says
xoxo
Claudia says
Yes I spent a lot of time in the woods in Michigan but there was no Lyme Disease in those days.
Thanks, Vicki. Stay safe!
jeanie says
This is the best news of the day — an improvement. I didn’t realize doxy was so pricey — I’ve been on it three times this year for infections. It’s very fast and effective. I guess my Rx co-pay insurance really paid off.
This makes me smile. So glad he’s recovering — and yes, I know you had to be very worried till it kicked in.
Claudia says
I don’t know if it’s still pricey, but it was outrageously jacked up in price several years ago. Hopefully, some regulator got the price back to where it should be.
Thanks, Jeanie. Stay safe!
Martha says
Oh so grateful for the news today!
Rally on!!
Prayers for RBG
We are so lucky to have the spoken & written words of John Lewis. Peace
xoxo to you All
Claudia says
Thank you, Martha. Stay safe!
Priscilla C says
Good news from you today. Continue on!! He’ll get better with your love & support & the meds!
Yes, good by to John Lewis, but a life certainly left behind with an incredible legacy. A very good soul.
Claudia says
Thank you, Priscilla. Stay safe!
Wendy T says
Glad Don feels better, enough to read and watch TV. Being a committed urbanite, I don’t know much about Lyme disease, but I know it’s definitely not pleasant.
One of my favorite Arthur episodes guest starred John Lewis. Arthur, for you who don’t know, is a half-hour animated PBS kids program, with two stories in each half hour. Arthur is an anthropomorphic aardvark with two little sisters, an accountant Mom and a caterer Dad. His friends are depicted by different animals. (I always find it amusing that Arthur has a pet dog, that acts like a dog but can speak to other pets.). Arthur is one of my daughters’ favorite childhood shows, and I look forward to each new season. There are always important lessons to be learned from each episode, and from the one with John Lewis, it’s taking a peaceful stand to right a wrong.
Claudia says
He was a great man, Wendy. Stay safe! Thank you.
kathy in iowa says
whew! very glad to hear the very good news that don is on the mend … which means you must be feeling some better, too! :) keep healing!
hope you both continue to take it easy and stay cool and safe.
had a long day at three very crowded stores trying to get groceries, etc. for several households today … but i am happy and grateful to be able to do that so they can stay out of the stores.
we chatted (best part of my days and life … all my family) from a sad distance, but i won’t take chances with their health. now am home, showered and taking it easy, too. might paint after ironing clothes for the week ahead. one of those things is more fun than the other, but i am grateful for the clean clothes, the iron and ironing board and having a job. and the electricity that heats up the iron also runs the air conditioner … appreciated as it is very hot, humid and windy here.
keep cool, everyone!
kathy in iowa
Vicki says
… hi kathy; glad you’re continuing to be on the mend yourself, and that you can get out and do all these things for yourself and others; just wanted to say from talking to friends this weekend and also from what my husband observed, having to go out to no less than four stores over the past two days which were more crowded than he would have preferred, even with senior shopping hours (we’re ‘in’ now, hoping to not have to get out again anytime soon other than for medical appointments; it’s just like March all over again, keep thinking what we need or ‘have’ to have and I think other people here in SoCalif are doing the same, scurrying around, stocking up, getting ready to get to more lengthy shelter-in-place orders, if possible, due to things not getting any better in our half of the sate with Covid) … anyway … the shoppers in the stores are being polite, wearing masks, exercising patience and respecting distancing; so, for all the violators, there ARE good people out there trying really hard to do all the right things, just like you!
Vicki says
… ‘in our half of the sate” … I meant ‘state’ (eyes are bleary this time of night!) …
kathy in iowa says
hej, vicki.
thanks. doing okay.
hope you and your husband are, too. glad to hear about your nice long drive.
sorry that you and your husband have to deal with such rude and reckless behavior from those neighbors. i guess the good part of that is they’ve shown their character and you can keep your distance from them, not only now (with the obvious need to keep a safer social distance), but also in the future when things are better.
your husband’s experience of having to go to multiple stores and finding them nerve-rackingly crowded is much like mine, except that i don’t see enough masks! one place i shop (a big box store) thankfully will require everyone to wear a mask, starting tomorrow … but the local neighborhood store i like to support does not require masks except for their employees. and despite rising numbers here, our governor keeps saying she “trust(s) iowans to keep doing the right things”. news flash to her … many iowans never started taking precautions. my boss doesn’t wear a mask all the time nor does she require staff (including her 40-year-old son) to do so. unbelievable … especially for being in a busy place withlots of elderly people! i take all precautions, for sure, and will continue.
hope you are in the middle of an easier weekend and have all you need. stay safe!
kathy in iowa
Claudia says
Thank you, Kathy! Stay safe!
Chris K in Wisconsin says
Such good news, Claudia, to hear Don is feeling and doing better. One day at a time. Sounds like he is being a good patient! That helps!
That is one of my favorite John Lewis quotes. May we all work to honor his memory and service.
Claudia says
He is a good patient. I think he has no choice!
Stay safe, Chris!
Roxie says
Very good news about Don; what a relief for you both.
John Lewis. He left big shoes to fill, but a good trail to follow. RIP
Claudia says
Thank you, Roxie. Stay safe!
Robyn C says
Glad to know that things are improving for you both. Hope that continues to happen!
Claudia says
Thanks, Robyn. Stay safe!
Nora in CT says
So glad that Don has turned the corner. I’m sure the last few days have been awful for you. Lyme is so insidious–I know people and kids who have suffered for years and it’s harder than hell to get properly diagnosed. We picked up a med for my diabetes yesterday and it’s around $500 after insurance. It’s not insulin. But let’s fight over who said what in a stupid tweet instead of working for health care. On that note, thank you for the photos of your garden’s beauty. Stay well and stay hydrated over the next several days.
Claudia says
We will. You too. We’re in for a couple of miserable weather days! Stay safe, Nora.
Julie says
Confused why a doctor would not insist on a test for COVID. Chills, fever, fatigue – yes for Lyme but top of CDC list for COVID. You don’t have to have all symptoms to have a cough, shortness of breath etc.
Claudia says
Because they had a long talk about the symptoms and the doctor knows more than we do. Given Don’s history (and mine) and what we know about Lyme and the fact that Don had had a recent tick bite, the logical choice was to put him on Doxycycline, the med used for Lyme. If it hadn’t worked, we would have explored further. It did.
COVID tests are not easily obtained these days. We weren’t going to let those symptoms go on while waiting for a test that we strongly suspected wasn’t needed.
Kay Nickel says
Glad to hear that Don is better. I know many people who still struggle with Lyme disease. Smart of you both to recognize the symptoms and get quick treatment.
Thinking of you both.
Claudia says
Thank you, dear Kay. Stay safe!