Exactly one year ago today, I fell off the back porch, and after an overnight stay in the hospital, a CAT Scan and MRI, left with three stitches on my lower lip. I had a small accumulation of blood under the skull that, luckily, disappeared a month later. It was a huge shock to my confidence after having stepped on and off that very same back step literally thousands of times in the 45 years I have lived here. I simply couldnt’t believe it. And I can’t believe a year has passed since it happened.
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I came home from the second round of vestibular therapy this week which, thank goodness, was not as violent and traumatic as the first. I had been dealing with dizziness on and off since Christmas, and after a CAT Scan and MRI (again) I went to an ENT who diagnosed it as BPPV. Neither the therapist nor I believed that it was BPPV but she began a course of therapy anyway. I really need to get the dizziness under control if I want to continue to live safely on my own. VT is very unpleasant, frightening, and another huge blow to my confidence. Between my first and second therapy sessions, I had a fortuitously timed annual check up with my cardiologist. He suggested a much calmer course of action. He’ll decide on Monday after I take my BP twice a day for 5 days straight, if my dizziness is caused by a sudden rise in BP. If it is, he can adjust the medication and alleviate the dizziness without resorting to that absolutely horrible VT. Fingers crossed.
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This morning, Francesco and I met at Evergreen to buy pastries for breakfast. It’s a popular place so I arrived a few minutes early. The line extended along the front of the building and then curled on itself inside the bakery. A man who was standing behind me, but close enough, was wearing a black T shirt with a whimsical drawing of the Blues Brothers on the front and “On a Mission From God’ on the back. I complimented him on his shirt and he told me, quite proudly, that he brought Dan Akroyd and John Belushi to Atlanta to perform at the Tabernacle all those years ago. Wow, and he had a beautiful smile, too.
Francesco and I had a great time together, eating our delicious pastry and drinking cappuccino in my kitchen. He told me about his surprise visit with his parents at Christmas, his travels to London, Amsterdam. and Zurich. He even brought me a sweet ceramic miniature of a Dutch wooden shoe for my Christmas tree. He is such a dear.————————————————————————————————————————————————
It’s such a beautiful afternoon so I went to Candler Park to check out Space Queen, a boutique that Katie recommended. They were having a pop up show with artists set up inside and outside the shop. Found some cards and a silly gift. Walked around the nearby gift shops, specifically looking for silk flowers for my favorite straw hat. In the very next store, there was a silk flower right by the cash register. I inquired where in the store I could find some. The cashier said they didn’t sell them there! BUT the lady who dropped it just happened to be standing outside the store. I ran outside before she could walk away, she happily texted me the online info. I ordered the same, I’m so excited, all thanks to a very nice stranger and a confluence of timing and space. Sometimes things just go your way.
