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Day 57: Tuesday, July 07

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Ordered flowers for our 42nd wedding anniversary from The Flower Pot in Maynard. They were supposed to come tomorrow but they showed up today.

Martha, from VNA was here in the morning. She reviewed prescriptions and did a painless blood draw for Complete Blood Count (CBC) and Comprehensive Metabolic Test (CMP). It took several days to find out the results of the test, which annoyed me and I found unprofessional, but eventually I found out that they had been dropped off at LabCorp in Lowell. I was able  to create an account and get copies. I sent copies on to SLC who had also not received them. WBC was higher!

Labcorp – july 7, 2026Download

I returned a call from BCBS who were following up on my discharge.

Day 56: Monday, July 6

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Blood pressure still running a bit high: 138/65 this morning. Called my PCP to request prescriptions for Gabapentin and Zofran. Called VNA to check for when the nurse would stop by. At 7 p.m. Martha from VNA called to say she’d be there tomorrow between 9:30 and 10:30.

I watched the beginning of the USA-Belgium game but gave up when the score was 2-1 to Belgium. They eventually won 4-1. The US did not have it together, I think. If the US had won following the suspension of Balogan’s red card, the Belgians would have called foul for political interference. I think also the US team was off balance from the “Trump Touch” that turns everything to shit!

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Day 55: Sunday, July 5

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This was the first night in a while that I’ve gotten a “Good” from my Fitbit sleep tracking. The sleep score was 81, although only 27 minutes of deep sleep.

Today was Maureen’s Birthday. I totally forgot to wish her a “Happy Birthday” when she woke up. I guess I’m too self-absorbed in my own health.

Today was not a great day overall. Nausea continued unabated and I could not face solid food, except for breakfast. My blood pressure was running high, and I took lots of breaks. I’m easing off of the morphine as I only have minimal pain during the day and I think it’s not helping with the nausea. Miranda bought me some ginger ale and ginger tea. Also a bottle of an OTC nausea medicine called Emetrol – it’s basically just sugar and phosphoric acid, like concentrated Coca-Cola.

I watched the England-Mexico game on my phone – at least the first part. I saw the amazing double goals from Bellingham, just 98 seconds apart. Mexico had been playing better than England up to that point. I could feel my blood pressure creeping up! Then there was the goal from Quinones for Mexico to narrow the lead to 2-1. Thought to myself “I just can’t take it – too much excitement!” Put the phone down and napped. Woke up and checked the phone: we won!!

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Day 54: Saturday, July 4

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An OK night. Maureen and I woke up a lot until Miranda got here at 12:40 am. She came upstairs and we talked for a bit, then went back to sleep. In the morning I was “not quite so chipper,” as Maureen put it. I’m a bit sweaty – the brace and boot are digging into me. Later in the morning I took my blood pressure 159/83, which is pretty high for me. I lay down and rested and later it went down to 121/68.

Miranda tested the pool water. It’s already turning a bit green. pH was fine, but Cl was low.

I walked Miranda through the basics of pruning the indeterminate tomatoes and attaching them to the trellis. They’re growing vigorously, overtopping the trellis, and probably should have been pruned a couple of weeks ago. She did a good job though.

I felt nauseous at various times today, almost certainly due to the high doses of Bactrim that I’m taking. It was accompanied by a repeat of high blood pressure, though it eventually settled down to the 130s range after lying down and listening to music. Selected the most relaxing singer I know: John Martyn. Maureen and I used to listen to him all the time when we were first married.

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One Step Beyond!

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It’s now 52 days since I broke my tibia and began my medical journey. Numerous doctors, surgeons, hospital staff, rehab staff, my friends, you, my correspondents, my daughter Miranda, and above all, my wife Maureen, have kept me from descending into madness, for which I am sincerely thankful. I was discharged from MGH today and am writing this from home. I was previously discharged to rehab, but it turned out that somewhere along the line I’d picked up a nasty variant of e-coli. That meant sending me back to MGH for diagnosis and selection of the right antibiotic: Bactrim.  My right leg is in a rigid brace that prevents it from bending; I’ll have it on for several more weeks. And hey, although I’ll admit to being a fair-weather fan, with both US and England still in the World Cup, it’s not the worst thing to have some spare time.