Ahh…

A lovely 5C today.  Partly sunny, then overcast and rain looming… The long range forecast has snow coming.  I’m not looking forward to that at all at all.  It’s the time of year when it gets miserable and the days shrink to dark mornings, dark afternoons and midnight at 4pm… not fun in the least.  Jerry is on his “new” bed — an old pillow that we gave him.  I stopped buying him beds as he will just rip the stuffing out of them and I’d be spending ages picking up the wads of batting.  Don was feeling under the weather today, having difficulty breathing, walking and sleeping last night.  He’s dozed a few times today and is not fully awake at the moment.  He’ll hopefully sleep better tonight.

I realized that for the last few nights I haven’t slept too well myself.  I turn off my light to go to sleep by 9:30, will fall asleep for about an hour, and then wake up in pain in my back — there’s pain in my coccyx where I can’t find a comfy spot, and another spot in my shoulder and elbow that ache so I try to find a place to sleep.  It’s sad because I spend hours tossing and turning.  My appetite seems ok, and I’m eating a lot more than usual for me, which is nice.

Isn’t Facebook great for some things?  Last night I posted a request in a group for Trinidadians living out of the country, asking if there were any Trinis in Ottawa who made traditional Christmas treats… I got a response within an hour, followed by a phone call from someone with the contact information of a person who did.  In under 15 minutes I spoke with the lovely lady and placed an order.  I’m so excited!  I had to admit to myself that making most of these is beyond my strength this year, but at least I’ll have my treats and a traditional Christmas breakfast.  I’ve also ordered some other treats — British — to supplement things.  My dear friend has recommended some Greek treats, so I’ll be hunting for them as they sound scrumptious.  Thanks to everyone who’s jumped in to help me with planning my treats.  I also apologize, as I haven’t yet mailed out my Christmas cards and CanadaPost is on strike so they will be late.  I do love you all, so please forgive me.

I spent the last few days working on the grant reviews for the Canadian Cancer Society.  As always, it was informative, inspiring and interesting.  It was 6 hours a day for 2 days, so I’m happy it was online so I could tune out when needed.  This round was focussed on health equity and trying to ensure coverage for underserved groups… I’ll just make the observation that the researchers who are trying to recruit participants keep treading the same path… they reach out to community and church groups to try to find people, they say that they don’t have links to certain communities, and they tend to focus on urban centres, even when the subject area is allegedly rural and remote patients.  I think that open calls, using both traditional and social media would probably help somewhat, as would reaching out into workplaces and schools — I recognize that there are costs attached, and a lot of work, but broadening the reach is likely to provide more participation and better results.

That’s my rant for tonight, which I’ll attribute to being hungry a bit… I’ll go sort out something yummy in a few minutes.  I’m finally done with the IV, but I’m now dealing with some of the side effects — notably swollen ankles which go down overnight but puff up when I sit too long, and having to run to the bathroom almost every hour to eliminate excess liquid.  It’ll pass, but I’ll be fine.  Good night!