{"id":5734,"date":"2022-02-05T00:29:10","date_gmt":"2022-02-05T00:29:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/?p=5734"},"modified":"2022-02-05T00:29:10","modified_gmt":"2022-02-05T00:29:10","slug":"feverish-weak-but-other-than-that-a-pretty-good-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/feverish-weak-but-other-than-that-a-pretty-good-week\/","title":{"rendered":"Feverish, Weak; But Other Than That, a Pretty Good Week"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.health.state.mn.us\/diseases\/coronavirus\/situation.html\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/brendans-island.com\/blogsource\/20210922ff\/20220204-3casegraph-658.jpg?w=640&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Minnesota Department of Health's Situation Update for COVID-19, Minnesota Case Overview. (3\/5\/2020-2\/3\/2022)\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I spent part of Monday morning making notes for a talk with our parish priest. Then I called the <a href=\"https:\/\/parishesontheprairie.org\/\">Parishes on the Prairie<\/a> office \u2014 P. on the P. are six parishes and a school in central Minnesota.<\/p>\n<p>I left a message, asking our priest to call me back. So far, he hasn&#8217;t. Which is probably just as well.<\/p>\n<p>A bit after noon Monday, I ran an errand: picked up meds. After that, I \u2014 actually, I don&#8217;t remember just what I did. But I do remember feeling cold. Unaccountably cold.<\/p>\n<p>Good news, the furnace was working fine, and inside temperatures were normal. A little below normal in some spots, since my wife was baking. But well within the normal range.<\/p>\n<p>Decades of experience told me that checking my temperature was prudent. So I did.<\/p>\n<p>Here are the numbers:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Monday 103.3<\/li>\n<li>Tuesday 104.2<\/li>\n<li>Wednesday 102.5<\/li>\n<li>Thursday 99.5<\/li>\n<li>Friday 100.4<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>More good news: temperatures, blood sugar counts and other items stayed below &#8216;I ought to see a doctor&#8217; levels. Thursday&#8217;s blood sugar was reaching &#8216;talk to a medico&#8217; level, but was lower on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>And Friday I wasn&#8217;t feeling as weak and &#8216;I gotta lie down and sleep&#8217; as I&#8217;d been from Monday afternoon on. All of which is good news. Although not lying down and getting some sleep Friday may explain my fever going up that day.<\/p>\n<p>Not-so-good news, I&#8217;ve been in no condition to write about a remarkable development in fusion. Scientists at the National Ignition Facility (NIF) in California started and maintained a fusion reaction.<\/p>\n<p>What makes this effort remarkable is that they got marginally more energy out to the reaction than they put in.<\/p>\n<p>This is, I think, a big deal. I also think that I want to be much more clear-headed when I write about it.<\/p>\n<h4><a name=\"doing\"><\/a>Doing What I Can, Not Doing What I Can&#8217;t<\/h4>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/science-religion-covid-19-and-an-unexpected-opinion\/#opinions\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/brendans-island.com\/blogsource\/20210525ff\/20210611-COVID-19_VaccinationCard-DSC09056-658.JPG?w=640&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"COVID-19 Vaccination Record Card. (June 11, 2021)\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>As for what sort of bug I&#8217;ve been experiencing, I don&#8217;t know. It could be some flu variety, COVID-19, or something else.<\/p>\n<p>Knowing the bug&#8217;s name would be nice, but isn&#8217;t necessary. And testing? Unnecessary medical expenses aren&#8217;t an option.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve had two COVID-19 shots and a booster, plus my annual flu shot. So ranting about vaccinations being useless, an affront to the Almighty, or some kinda plot <strong>is<\/strong> an option. But not, I think, a reasonable one.<\/p>\n<p>Whatever the bug is, I seem to be getting better. That&#8217;s nice.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve been sleeping downstairs since Monday night: on a bed we set up in the north room, in case we needed to lower upstairs temperatures to &#8216;keep the pipes from freezing&#8217; levels.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s been an interesting experience. I mentioned I&#8217;d been feeling weak, right? Well, I&#8217;ve been getting into and out of that downstairs bed by using a walker as an anchor\/support. It&#8217;s the one my father-in-law used. We miss him, and that&#8217;s another topic.<\/p>\n<h5><a name=\"thank\"><\/a>&#8220;I Thank You, Lord, For Preserving Me During the Night&#8221;<\/h5>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/thanksgiving-2020-pandemic-peril-and-perspectives\/#waking\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/brendans-island.com\/blogsource\/20180320ff\/20161125-WeSurvived-text-329.jpg?w=640&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Brian H. Gill's 'We Survived Thanksgiving, Right?' (2017)\" align=\"right\"><\/a>I don&#8217;t enjoy feeling the way I have this week. But I woke up each morning: and that&#8217;s <strong>ALWAYS<\/strong> a good thing.<\/p>\n<p>Which is why I thank our Lord for &#8220;preserving me during the night&#8221; each morning.<\/p>\n<p>Being alive for another day is a big deal.<\/p>\n<p>A definite &#8216;up&#8217; side to this bug is that I&#8217;ve been sharp enough to do my daily prayer routine.<\/p>\n<p>Being at the Adoration chapel this week wasn&#8217;t an option, obviously. I&#8217;m not sure about Mass this Sunday. With Friday&#8217;s increased temperature, I&#8217;m <strong>really<\/strong> not sure.<\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;ve been told to use our brains, and keep both our health and the common good in mind. I&#8217;m pretty sure that someone, somewhere, is offended and repulsed by that example of common sense.<\/p>\n<p>But I&#8217;m not. I&#8217;ve talked about that, and a mess of other stuff, before:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/covid-19-and-people-who-need-people-another-year\/\">COVID-19 and People Who Need People, Another Year<\/a>&#8221;<br \/>\n(January 25, 2022)<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/light-show-in-washington-law-and-life-masks-back-on\/\">Light Show in Washington; Law and Life; Masks Back On<\/a>&#8221;<br \/>\n(January 23, 2022)<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/science-religion-covid-19-and-an-unexpected-opinion\/\">Science, Religion, COVID-19 and an Unexpected Opinion<\/a>&#8221;<br \/>\n(November 8, 2021)<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/the-unmasked-minnesotans-second-covid-19-shot\/\">The Unmasked Minnesotan\u2019s Second COVID-19 Shot<\/a>&#8221;<br \/>\n(June 11, 2021)<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/new-covid-19-vaccines-goodish-news-ethical-issues\/\">New COVID-19 Vaccines: Goodish News, Ethical Issues<\/a>&#8221;<br \/>\n(December 16, 2020)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I spent part of Monday morning making notes for a talk with our parish priest. Then I called the Parishes on the Prairie office \u2014 P. on the P. are six parishes and a school in central Minnesota. I left &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/feverish-weak-but-other-than-that-a-pretty-good-week\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"I have been running a fever since Monday afternoon. So I didn't get much done this week. But have done what I could do, which is good news.","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[215,192],"tags":[200,64,106,8],"class_list":["post-5734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-being-catholic","category-journal","tag-covid-19","tag-faith","tag-faith-and-works","tag-health"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7Dwtw-1uu","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5734"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5734\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5735,"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5734\/revisions\/5735"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}