Welcome, I’m Mary Louisa Locke, the author of the USA Today best-selling Victorian San Francisco Mystery series and the Caelestis Science Fiction series. In this daily newsletter, I reflect on my life as an indie author trying to age gracefully, including my struggles to maintain a balanced life, what I listen to, read, and watch for entertainment, and occasional bits of information I’ve gleaned from doing the research for my novels.
Daily Diary, Day 1244:
I am starting with a couple of small reasons to celebrate.
Breaking the 1000 words barrier this week:
For a variety of reasons for the past six weeks, I have never written more than 960 words in a day, and many days I written less than 500. I thought this past week was going to follow that pattern, but then yesterday, I’m not sure why, I actually wrote 1015 words. I even had one short unscheduled phone call and a long text conversation, so I can’t even say it was because I was uninterrupted! But absolutely a reason to celebrate, and I hope going forward that I can keep up that momentum.
A lovely shawl surprise:
As I wrote a whole post in 2022 about my husband’s go-to gift for me is shawls. And this birthday was no exception. However, this shawl had an extra special element that I really appreciated. It has this tab on the shoulder, where I can secure one end of the shawl, which means this end of the shawl stays on and keept the other end secure so I don’t end up with the ends dragging through my food or dipping into the sink when I do the dishes. But as the extra surprise is when I put on the shawl he gave me for Christmas and noticed or the first time it had the same little tab! I hadn’t noticed because of its bright pattern, and I was so delighted! Here is a photo of that shawl, (and I hope my last selfie for the year!) and if you look close, you can see the tab on the right shoulder.
Good News on Health:
Final big reason for celebration is the clean bill of health from my doctor’s visit on Monday and then very good lab test results on Thursday. As those of you who have been following me since I started this newsletter a little over a year and a half ago, I have been struggling to get back to a level of health (in terms of blood sugar, weight, stamina, level of exercise) that I had before I broke a toe before Christmas two years ago. While I had become resigned to the fact that the process was going to be slow, particularly because there were some exercises that were clearly now out of the question- like any kind of cardio where I even march in place, much less do something like jumping jacks (the x-ray for the broken toe revealed 5 other old breaks, a sign of my fragile bones--one of the long-term effects of the odd syndrome I have.) I also kept encountering a series of minor set-backs when I would pull a muscle, or the anti-biotics I took for a stye caused arthritis flare-ups . Everytime I would have to cut back on my walking would slow my progress, and it might take weeks to get back to the level I had achieved before the set-back.
But I was patient, until this summer, when I began to get frustrated because I felt stuck, making no progress at all. every time I tried to push my amount of time walking to get back up to an hour a day, I would get tired and winded. Then my blood sugar readings started to fluxuate wildly. That is when I went to my primary care physician to talk about my concerns, and she got worried because of a high pulse rate and a blood test that was sort of wonky, and she instituted a series of tests.
I have had the same primary care physician for over ten years, I quite like her, and she takes me seriously when I have a concern. So, after this visit in August, I have had a chemical stress test, 2 CT scans, a series of tests of my lung capacity, and an echocardiogram. The CT scans and the echocardiogram found a few minor anomalies in my lungs that are most likely from an old infection and are resolving, so a follow-up in 6 months, and the heart issues are “consistent with aging” ie, something that is rather normal for a person my age, with follow-up in 3-5 years.
But between August and now, as I waited for test results, I concentrated on what I could control, especially after the first stress test when the cardiologist said they saw no reason why I couldn’t continue to try and increase my physical activity.
First, I figured out what was behind the blood sugar change (a change in the formula for my daily protein shake) and I started measuring everything I ate to make sure I was very consistent with my carb and calorie intake, tweaking just a little—like getting rid of the 2 crackers I had with my cheese for dinner.) Then I found that if I broke up my walking into two 30 minutes segments, and slowly added Pilates until I did 30 minutes a day, both the weight started to come down and as did the blood sugar to stabilize.
The effect is that I feel stronger than I have in two years, with a very sustainable routine that shouldn’t cause any injuries. I’ve been able to shift to maintenance of my weight and blood sugar, by adding back some calories, including putting adding the crackers back in, but this time with almond butter on them and on my morning English muffin. Yum.
This is a great place to be as I turned 74, and while I realize that I can’t assume there won’t be set-backs in my future, I also feel much more assured that with patience I will overcome those setbacks. But for now, staying in the present, I can certainly celebrate my good health today!
So, ta da! these are my celebrations this week, what are yours?
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I wish I could say I have something to celebrate but I don't think I do. Plenty to be grateful for but not particularly to celebrate. Well done on writing so many words in one day. That surely was something to celebrate. Your health, too, which you work so hard at, being in a good place.
I am so impressed with your dedication to increasing your activity while balancing your physical needs!