Leslee
04-23-2026
Leslee's Reluctant April Health Update
Why do I hate making these updates? Because I have the following thoughts in my head:
- Nobody reads these things
- Nobody cares about my health updates
- I feel compelled not to complain or sound negative but to be sweet and nice always
- Millions of people are undergoing way more serious troubles
- I’m sick of myself and my sometimes pity party
- Everyone is sick of me and my sometimes pity party
This list is brought to you by my loyal friends guilt, shame, anxiety, and social conditioning. You would think that at sixty three I would have been able to shed these fiendish faux friends. But no, while I’ve become way more emotionally healthy, those kinds of thoughts pop up to thoroughly annoy me every so often. I will acknowledge these thoughts, feel the associated feelings, then discard those which do not serve me.
Here’s the update
On the positive side, my mobility is way better with a new dose of meds. Also, my head is much more clear and my right leg is not losing control as much. Still numb and have pain in the same old places, but that feels normal now, so I’m not as bugged. There are just a few things that really suck some joy from my day to day. One is fatigue. I have to really pace myself, take frequent rests, and try hard not to drain the ol’ battery. If I am not careful and aware, I let it go too long and then take longer to recover. This is normal and requires me to be patient with the healing process. I want to be able to do all the things, have all the stamina, and not feel like a burden to those who are picking up the slack.
Another thing is temperature regulation. At any random moment I might feel a furnace of heat coming through my upper body while the feet are ice shards. It’s the worst at night–hot, sweat, throw off covers, chill, put covers back on, repeat. This results in poor sleep. I am really salty about it because I already went through menopause!! I was done ten years ago, and I am not happy to be doing this portion of it again. Lastly, I’m losing muscle mass. The fatigue makes it hard to do the exercise necessary to keep up with it. When I’m tired my mobility and balance go down the toilet, which would be better if I had more muscle mass. Then I feel cranky.
But I have a plan (Constructed from what the health professionals said)
Do only ten minutes of strength training on my larger muscles and core. If I feel good later in the day, I’ll do ten minutes of walking around. For food, I’ll focus on getting enough protein and water. If I feel more hungry, I’ll shove in some veg. I’ll try with all my might to have better sleep. If I have to choose between exercise and household chores, I’ll choose the one that feels most important at the moment, knowing that either one will make me tired. I’ll do my job on a laptop from my comfy chair. When getting ready, I’ll do it from my bathroom chair (surprising and pathetic how exhausting showering and getting ready is).
Here are my own parts of the plan:
Read happy books
Meditate
Spend time outside every day
Interact with humans outside my home dwellers as much as possible
Find upsides, glimmers, things to be grateful for every day
So I will end with things I am grateful for. My family, their love and support, their quirky sense of humor that makes me laugh, their uniqueness that makes the world wonderful. Flowers. Snow-capped mountains. Good nature smells. Awesome people who fight for good in the world. Clever people who come up with cool ideas and things. Artistic people who bring beauty to others. Fat little birds at my bird feeder. What invasive thoughts do you have? What are you struggling with? What do you do about it? What things are you grateful for? Please share–we are all in this together and we could all use a little wisdom.
Community is Critical to Recovery and We Welcome All Supporters.
Over the coming weeks, we’ll be sharing:
- Weekly progress updates
- What the PT process really looks like
- Tools and equipment that genuinely help
- Honest discussions about pain, fear, and progress
- Adaptive strength training for seniors
- Caregiving insights for families navigating medical trauma
If you’d like to follow along with Leslees recovery, learn, or simply support our family during this time, you can hit the link or join our email list below.
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