Valley Fever Update

I sometimes feel like I’m on the slow boat to China in this Valley Fever recovery.  I am just going onto week 8 of the 12 week regimen of anti fungal medication.  First of all, those stinkin’ pills want to dissolve in my mouth before I can even get a sip of water, and it tastes terrible.  On top of that, I feel like it has dried out my whole body.  My skin feels dry, and especially my mouth and lips.  Fortunately, I was at the dermatologist’s office a couple weeks ago and they gave me some great samples for severely chapped lips.

My energy is better.  When my son and his cousin came to visit in December for my birthday, we took them to the Boyce-Thompson Arboretum.  The hike around the arboretum was really exhausting.  I was feeling bad that I was so out of shape. (I did not know I had Valley Fever at the time).  Two weeks ago a different son and his wife came to visit from Missouri, and once again, we hiked the arboretum and the mountain.  I had no trouble walking through the paths of cactus and desert plants.  I thought maybe I was over it, but my most recent blood test showed a significant positive change, but the fungus is still among us!  Hopefully, at the end of 12 weeks the Valley Fever will have taken a hike.

I am more active, although I have still kept my activity on the simple side, and try not to do any evening activity, if possible.  I am back in my sewing room making gifts for special people.  I even started a quilt for myself—that’s a novel idea!  

I am cleaning out my computer.  I am going through decades of photos stored in my photo program, cleaning out photos I don’t need to be keeping, and making sure everyone in the photos are identified.  I am currently in September of 2013.  I guess I am halfway finished.  It’s a lot of work, but going down Memory Lane has been a nice side effect.  I re-visited my kids weddings, saw beautiful trips I have taken, seen many photos of loved ones and friends who have since passed.  Those photos were especially poignant to revisit.  I have watched the grandkids growing up in front of my eyes, well on my computer screen.  Some photos have made me smile, and some have made me laugh out loud.  Some have made me sad.  All these photos have reminded me of the very rich life I have.  So many friends, and so many family members to relive special times with them.

On a positive note, Valley Fever has made me stop and smell the roses, so to speak.  It has also made me want to further my look in to the ancestry of my mother’s family.  I have a lot on my dad’s family, thanks to an aunt who did all the work.  My mother’s family is a mystery beyond who my great grandparents are.  Both her mom and dad hailed from Austria-Hungary, which became Yugoslavia, and then split up to Serbia and Croatia.  Maybe I should get some of my many cousins to help in the process.  I have five first cousins from my mom’s side living right here in the Phoenix, Arizona area.  Wouldn’t it be fun if we got together regularly to investigate our roots?

I have no complaints today.  Well, I wish it would stop raining and warm up.  Not being a native of Arizona, I want 100% sunshine, but I am reminded by native Arizonans how important this rain is. So, I shall not complain.  I’ll just stay indoors today.