Wednesday of this week, I finally saw a cardiologist, thanks to Dr. Shay’s intervention while he was vacationing in Ireland.  My cardiologist is Dr. Kalin now.  He is very pragmatic and communicates well.  He took me off diuretics and said I should just use them if my ankles get swollen, but that a little swelling is common at my age.  The pacemaker specialist I now have, whom I saw at the same appointment, said that my heart is now beating on its own, with the pacemaker monitoring it and ready to take over if needed.

I walked out of there very happy indeed.  He said I should watch my sodium, but could take baths again – which I promptly began to do, and could have my usual modest amount of wine.  Both he and the pacemaker specialist said I should start exercising immediately.  She especially stressed the need to get strength back in my left arm, which was immobilized for so many weeks.  Indeed, I have little strength in that arm. I can’t support my body yet.  I’ll have to work hard on it.

I did arm exercises this morning, and now it’s quite sore.  It’ll be a slow improvement, I suspect.

We finished trimming the tree on Thursday late afternoon.  Woody was working outside most of the day, so I did the bulk of the last two boxes ornaments.  Then we both finished up the last stragglers. Our tree is extravagant and funky, with many animals – bears, cows, cats, leopards, tigers, lions, pigs, bees, deer, butterflies, whales, dolphins fish, elephants, horses, owls, cardinals, warblers, hawks, camels, mice, mountain goats, etc. – and plant products – ears of corn, tomatoes, apples, grapes, cucumbers, garlic, roses, green bean – and just pretty ornaments, including a few from before World War II.  It’s very crowded and fascinating.  Visitors sometimes get lost staring at it, trying to see how many animals they can find.  Schwartzie and Shaman have been enjoying the tree perhaps a little too much.  Several ‘kills’ each morning, luckily just unbreakables s from the lower third of the tree. Willow just likes to get under the tree [the branches are low hanging] and snooze or peacefully contemplate.

I am working along on my new book, making steady progress.  I try to write a page a day except Mondays. Some days I do a page and a half or even two pages.  On this book, that’s the rate of progress that works for me.

Because Melenie is at a writers’ retreat, I won’t see her at the solstice to give her presents, I’ll wrap them today to be mailed to her on Monday.  Jay’s hasn’t come yet.  I’ll mail that later when it finally gets here. I wish it would come already.

I also send John Nichols a little care package every year to his home in Taos.  But this year I can’t include his favorite calendar, Cats Against the Bomb, as I was in the ICU and then out of action during the period when I should have ordered 2 copies. But I have the kama sutra relish he loves and the zuke relish he enjoys to a lesser extent. We have something new in common: defective hearts.