First off, I had a fairly adequate sleep — almost 4 hours before first wake for potty, but right back to sleep for another couple of hours. My first-of-the-morning finger stick was nice — 106!!! Woo-hooo.

I’ve been shuffling through the day, getting the kitchen ready to dye in. Did a load of dye-mop towels, which is good. The pain in my lower region is starting in early. Since I don’t know what is causing it, I don’t know how to prevent it. The worst of it is in the bladder area, which I don’t understand, but I suspect it is an effect of the diabetes working against my organs. Standing up and moving around is very uncomfortable, but even just sitting still the throbbing and gripping pain — like serious cramps — is painful. I see the urologist on Tuesday and I seriously hope he can figure it out. If I’ve been standing a while (or walking around Kroger collecting my groceries) it is worse. Sitting down to rest does not make the pain stop, but the pain prevents me from being able to stand up or move around much, so I just wait it out until it subsides. Sometimes it stops and I can actually rest or get up and do things.

Aspirin and/or ibuprofen do seem to help, so that’s what I’ve been using. Just had a snack so I can take a couple aspirin and see if that helps. I need to be able to stand up for a couple of hours in order to do the big dye job, but 10 minutes is almost more than I can take. 🙁

But I take it one day at a time and do the best I can.

Oh yeah, and today I turned 65 years old. I was born on a Saturday, at 4:11 a.m. at Cottage Hospital in Santa Barbara, California. Back then, in the early 50s, when television was still a rare commodity, Dad had to watch the Friday night boxing matches. As Mother told it, she sat on her suitcase by the door, in labor, until the Friday night fights were over, before Dad would take her to the hospital. And she made sure I knew I was the only one of her children born IN the Delivery Room, and ON TIME. Scott was a couple months early, Sheila was 17 days beyond due date, and Shannon was 38 days late and would still not be born if the county had not induced. I wasn’t aware they were on county resources, but it makes sense considering Dad may have been out of work at the time, I really don’t recall exactly as it was a tough period.

So, anyway, I made it to 65 years old. And I still have no idea what comes next. I guess I’ll just go on and see what this one day brings, and let tomorrow and the future figure itself out.