Cello's 4th Birthday! And it turns out ... pneumonia!

First, and most importantly, it is Cello's 4th birthday!  How handsome and happy does this birthday boy look?!?  I wish I could be there to share cake - but I'm counting days until Sam and both Cello and Cachao come for a visit to Maine in July!  Happy Birthday Cello!

So turns out I wasn't "better."  Last Monday I felt worse, significantly, and also thought I might have a fever.  Turns out, yes, 101.1 - not off the charts but I knew how I felt.  So David took me to Pen Bay to the ER.  The nurse who did the intake seemed skeptical, or maybe I just felt defensive and stupid.  Then I saw handsome, kind and very young doctor, Dr. M.  He asked questions, heard the history I told, listened to my chest.  He said it sounded to him like I had pneumonia, although he couldn't hear it in my chest when he listened.  He sent me for chest x-rays.  Bingo.  Pneumonia.  Eventually I got a prescription for an antibiotic and came home.

The med instructions and the general discharge papers both said I could feel "improvement" in 1-2 days and feel "significantly better" in 3-4 days, and warned direly of the need to keep taking all 10 days of antibiotics.  The next day I felt terrible.  Unfortunately I'm in a particularly bad stretch at work, so I couldn't just stay in bed, but I did end up taking about half day.  By the 3rd day I did feel "some improvement."  I knew it because I woke up and wanted coffee for the first time in many days.  Since then, some down and up and down.  People I talk to - who have had or know someone who had - pneumonia tell me it can take weeks to recover fully.  The hardest parts are the periodic deep racking cough (which I think may actually be useful in breaking up the mucus in my lung - only have the pneumonia in one lung, for which I am grateful) and how battered and bruised my whole body feels from the coughing, and the extreme exhaustion, which actually comes in waves.

I had a nice long catch up with Dan one day this week.  He was wondering when I would be coming to CT.  I had to cancel the CT scan that was scheduled for May 11, and therefore, the planned trip, too.   Young Dr. M of the ER said that the pneumonia could cause "ambiguity" in the scan results, that lymph nodes in my chest would appear angry and swollen, etc.  I waited until Friday and then rescheduled for the day after Memorial Day.  Hopefully I'll be well on the recovery road by then.

Meanwhile, the world moves on, although without my paying very close attention.  I hate that.  But frankly, just finding the energy to work every day pretty much has taken all my attention, all my energy.  While my attention has been otherwise occupied those delicate light green early leaves have burst out on the trees everywhere.  The willows are positively fuzzy with greenness.  And our own tulips have colored:

I took this of Ella the same afternoon in our back yard:

Here in Mid Coast Maine, life goes on.  Here's a randomly selected sample from this week's Free Press:

• Star Gazing at Deer Foot Farm, Fri., May 15, 8 p.m., Rte. 131, Appleton. Georges River Land Trust presents Pete Kalajian of Central Maine Astronomical Society, who leads naked-eye observation. Public welcome. FMI: 594-5166.
• Alewife Walk with Naturalist, Sat., May 16, 8 a.m. Don Reimer leads it at Payson Park, Warren. All welcome. FMI: Georges River Land Trust, 594-5166.
• Sensory Awareness Walk at Cross Point Preserve, Sat., May 16, 9-10:30 a.m. All ages. Meet at trailhead parking lot on Rte. 27, 3.2 miles from Boothbay Center monument. FMI: thall@bbrlt.org.
• Home Firewood Production, Sat., May 16, 9-11 a.m., Hidden Valley Nature Center Barn, Jefferson. Learn how to process & stack next winter's wood. $12/$10 HVNC, SWLA, DLWA, PWA and SVCA members. Advance registration preferred: hvnc.org.
• Birding Paddle on Goose River, Sat., May 16, 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Meet at put-in behind Swan Lake Grocery off Rte. 141, Swanville. Bring boat, lunch, sunscreen. FMI: BelfastBayWatershed.org.
• Maine Old Cemetery Association Program, Sat., May 16. Morning program ($3) and lunch ($7) at First Congregational-Christian Church, New Gloucester, followed by field trip to New Gloucester Lower Cemetery. RSVP by May 7: 877-7675, rootslilla@gmail.com.
• "Spirituality and Religion" Public Conversation, Sat., May 16, 9 a.m.-3 p.m., Farmstead Conf. Ctr., Rte. 1, Rockport. Speakers and small-group discussions for people of all (or no) religions. $25 covers lunch. Send check by May 13: Nativity Lutheran Church, 179 Old County Rd., Rockport, 04849. FMI: 596-0519.

From the ridiculous to the sublime, I guess.  Later today, I am hoping to have the energy to drive to Rockport and join the rest of my ukulele ensemble to pay 3 songs at some private school fundraiser.  They asked our teacher if he would be willing to do it and he asked us.  The last time we were ALL together to practice was a couple weeks ago so I hope we don't suck too bad.  But, hey, it's free entertainment and its UKULELES!!  Ukuleles make you smile!

Peace (and many more happy birthdays to the Cello Man!)