A Little of This, A Little of That...

First, thank you to everyone who came to my belated birthday party with Patty yesterday! I hope you all enjoyed yourselves! I sure loved having you participate in our fun, sweet day! For a while now, a few months, I've been fretting over a health issue. Lest I cause undo concern let me start by saying I think we finally have a handle on it! It all started when I was awakened on two separate occasions in the middle of the night feeling I could not get my breath! I also was experiencing an inordinate amount of phlegm in my throat and nose causing me to need to blow my nose many times in the mornings; and my voice seemed to be running low on steam by days end sounding to me like an old person's smoking voice. I've never smoked. It was gravely sounding. I went to see my PCP (Primary Care Physician.) She had a list of possible diagnosis', she prescribed some nasal spray and sent me to a specialist who looked at my throat. She assured me my worst fear was unfounded. (I did not have throat cancer)...and she sent me to a speech pathologist. All of these appointments were weeks or months apart. By the time I got to the speech pathologist, who I thought was going to teach me to breath differently to help my voice last longer, I was wondering WHY I was there? He wasn't a doctor. What would he know? But it turns out he was THE MOST knowledgeable about voices and throats and the like. He used a camera that could see and show both of us my vocal cords and throat (non intrusively) on a screen. He asked A LOT of questions. He finally determined that I was DEHYDRATED. As I drank nearly NO water to speak of ever. (enough to swallow pills twice a day). He prescribed my drinking (sipping through the day) 64 oz of water. He made a few more suggestions and he DID show me briefly how to breathe differently while speaking. I've been practicing all he suggested. And the very next day, after only ONE day of water drinking the problem seemed to clear up. I did NOT need to blow my nose more than once in the morning if that. I did not have a gravely sounding voice at days end. I did not have excess phlegm in my mouth. It's been a week and this is still true. I drew the following page in my journal to remind myself of this experience and outcome. I am very relieved that the remedy for my problem was such an easy one. We continue to visit the burrowing owls and I just could not wait until Animal Wednesday to show you this shot. I have lots more of them, but enjoy these EYES!!!

And speaking of eyes, I looked down at my last bite of cereal the other day and these eyes were staring back at me. I did not concoct this, they just WERE!

:-) It's sort of a self portrait on Grateful Thursday!;-)