The Laminine I am taking seems to be helping and I have longer periods of energy and endurance. I hadn’t mentioned it, but one of the problems I have that is easing up is orthostatic hypotension. This is where you feel dizzy or faint when you stand suddenly. It had become severe and, also, any chore that required bending was a nightmare. Cleaning the kitty litter could send me to bed. I think I am coming out of my fog.

Three days ago Ed had a morning full of guardian-related appointments. On his way off the island, I asked him to stop by the house of a friend I had made while walking because I had learned he had a stroke. He phoned a few minutes later to say my friend had died. I was very upset. His name was Curt, he used to have a terrific cocker spaniel named Buster, who died a couple of years ago. I was enormously fond of Curt even though he was sort of center-right. He laughed at all my jokes and we went head to head on the issues. Ed canceled his appointments because a memorial was being held at 11 a.m. and said he was going to get gas and then come and pick me up and we would attend.

He would be back by 10 he said. I waited. He phoned at 10:15, still at the gas station. He had tripped on the concrete strip that marks a parking space and pitched forward, hitting his head on the edge of a door opening out of the convenience store. A fellow with medical experience had given him a hand and now he was driving himself to Cape Coral Hospital. My friend, Nadine, was in Fort Myers and couldn’t help, but I got our neighbor, Gary, to drive me to emergency room.

I sat with Ed while he was evaluated and a doctor came in and put 9 staples in the cut. He also had a knee abrasion and was more than upset that his Zenia pants were torn beyond repair. Really, that bothered him more. His shirt was all bloody too. Finally, he was discharged and I couldn’t get him to go home. Instead we went to an assisted living facility so he could sign off on a resident he is guardian to, so she could get medical attention. That took an hour. Then he wanted to go to an appointment in Punta Gorda that would have involved an hour to get there, an hour with his appointment, an hour back. No way, I said. So we came home and he went to bed.

We missed the memorial, of course, but stopped off at Curt’s house to pay our respects to his widow, Kate.

It wasn’t the day I had planned. Three days later he is upset it happened at all and I said it was a blessing the wound was not more serious and that there was no need for a brain scan and to please look on the bright side.

xx, Teal