Excellent job on taking care of Lester. I can tell he’s in caring hands and I hope you both have many wonderful (and URTI-free, fingers crossed for that) years together.
I’d say never feel silly about a vet visit. Even if why you booked it is no longer an issue (which is definitely something that can and does happen for any pet owner), you can always use the time to pick their brains, learn new things and build a good relationship with them.
But… Where are 102 and 103 then? Are they on a separate street?
Oh wait I get it now. It’s a weird choice but ok. Where I live we just subdivide by adding letters. E.g 20 subdivide and becomes 20 and 20A.
Lots of snuggles.
It seems like you already have a good handle on the rest already, even if 3 URTIs in 5 months is no fun for anyone.
It might be worth giving your house a thorough clean to see if that helps. Maybe there’s a source of irritants (molds, pollens, that kind of thing) that is only really problematic for someone with a weakened immune system, and therefore more prone to secondary infections.
Super interesting. Maybe your immune system wasn’t so much suppressed, but just too occupied with everything else being on fire to focus on only your skin… But then why would it get worse for other people instead? Both COVID and bodies are really annoyingly complicated.
Covid has been linked with all kinds of immune, inflammation and skin issues. Recently there have been investigations into a possible correlation of people with AD and increased risk of infection and/or symptoms. I’d say trust your instincts. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40219685/
Mashed potatoes seems like it would be pretty hard to stir one handed, so credit to you for that. Thinner soups or things you can boil and drain would probably be an easier choice, so you don’t have to keep hold of a pot while stirring.
Things which keep their shape and that you can fry in a large flat pan and use tongs to move about, like the spam, are probably going to be much easier and safer overall though.
If you can afford one, a mandoline that is heavy or you can fix to a surface is something that will be useful even if your arm improves, they make chopping vegetables fast - but can be risky if you’re not paying full attention. I have one similar to this, but the more industrial ones are even sturdier.
If that isn’t an option, pre-cut frozen veg are usually not hugely more expensive than fresh, and are often more nutritious than stuff on the supermarket shelves. Tinned tomatoes or sauces are easy to throw on pasta too, which doesn’t need any real stirring - just be sure to only cook smaller pots so they’re lighter to deal with. Tinned beans are also great, my go to meal is that plus tinned tomatoes, a bunch of dried herbs/spices, and whatever veg I’ve got around at the time. You can fry some meat, throw in the rest, let it heat through and you’re good to go.
If you have an oven, a whole cob of corn in-husk is 30 mins. You can throw it in there, walk away, then after 30 take it out of the oven. Just gently tug the silk out from the top, which will now come out easily with no real mess, and you can then pull down the husk to use as a handle while eating.
Don’t write off microwaves either. Washing a few potatoes and nuking them for a few minutes per potato will get you a perfectly good meal base that you can load up with whatever. Microwaves are my go to for the frozen veg to help bulk out anything else I cook too.
My speciality is not arm-based problems but I’ve had to change a lot about how I cook for medical reasons, so hopefully some of this is helpful to you too. Good luck and I hope you don’t need to adapt for long!