2024

Happy New Year and thank God 2023 is over. 

I dunno about you guys, but I had one hell of a year.

Just briefly:

• Bad car accident in April.

• Had to buy a new car.

• My asymptomatic condition that I've had since I was roughly 40 became symptomatic and I had to get this therapy that wasn't really horrible or anything but I had to drive across town every single workday in 7 am rush hour traffic for eight fucking weeks.

• Therapy side effect: Free floating anger at pretty much everything.

• Saw a therapist to help with the free floating anger thing and he managed to make everything worse. 

• Diagnosed with two (count them! 2!) new and exciting medical conditions that are complicated and require a lot of monitoring.

• One neurologist refused to see me because I'd been in a car accident in April. True story. Next time I'm just gonna lie.

• One amazing week I had three doctor's appointments in three days. I also burned through almost a week of sick time.

• For Condition No. 1, I get to wear a little sensor on my arm all the time, which talks to my cell phone about me behind my back and rats me out to my doctor when I do something it doesn't like. It's kind of like having a personal private stool pigeon.

• Condition No. 2 is treatable, sort of, but the drugs are very new and still experimental. My insurance company approved them, surprisingly, but finding a pharmacy to fill it was a whole nother thing. Hardly anybody carries them and my doctor's office has a full time person who does nothing but handle problems like this. We did finally find a pharmacy. In Philadelphia.

• Had a minor medical emergency and spent 45 minutes sitting in the parking lot outside the local ER trying to decide A. if it was really bad enough to go in there and B. if I'd bankrupt myself and my family if I did, since I didn't know for sure if that particular hospital was on my insurance or not.

• I finally didn't. Go in, I mean. (I lived. Obviously.) And I don't need to go off on a rant about how messed up our medical system is. But seriously. What if I'd dropped dead right there in the parking lot? Would they have charged me for parking?

• Spent the rest of that day wrapped in a blanket on the couch feeling sorry for myself.

• The same week (yes, the same fucking week) I went for a mammogram and got injured (!). I've talked to the manager and the Director of Clinical Services and all that and they all said This Happens Sometimes.

• I don't seem to be able to make it understood that This Should Not Happen Ever. It's a ridiculously easy thing to prevent. And I can't think of a single time I've ever gone in for a medical procedure and come out with an unrelated injury. 25 years in the legal field and I have never once personally sued anybody. But I might have to do it here.

• I couldn't wear a bra for a week. I didn't go to the office and just worked at home because I kept thinking that everybody was staring at me. Which they probably weren't and it would have been creepy if they had.

• Went to Galveston over Christmas and had a great time the first two nights. The third night, our a/c malfunctioned and the only thing they could think of to do was move us to another room at 4 in the morning. That was fun.

• I think I'm gonna have to file a complaint with the state about the therapist.

The good news is that 2024 looks better. I'm adjusting to the new and exciting meds. My blood glucose numbers are still way too high and I will probably need to see an endocrinologist because I have A Lot More Going On than your average person, but at least I know that. Oh, and I got promoted again and got a nice raise. I'm now the Special Projects Manager. As they say, that and a quarter...

In December 2021, I had emergency knee surgery after tearing my meniscus through some unknown mechanism. (Worst pre-op experience ever, but that's a whole nother blog post. Just, if you can, don't ever have surgery during a pandemic.) For 7-8 months I had to hobble around, first with a walker and then with a cane. I thought I would never get away from the cane. I also thought I'd never be able to walk a decent distance again, or have any endurance, or--or, I dunno, have any kind of life. Well. I haven't used a cane in almost a year, tho I still use a Rollator when there's a lot of walking involved. I still can't do stairs, but I can walk almost half a mile (hoping to hit that goal by the end of January). Also, my swim team that went under during the pandemic has come back as 2 different entities. I joined one of them, had my first practice last week, and swam for an entire hour, nonstop. So apparently my endurance has not gone anywhere. And I'm still married and we still have a cute little house in Dallas and two great cats and we're going out later to buy a new sofa, which would not have been possible even a few years ago. And my family members are doing well. 

And I am very tired sometimes but I do have a life. And I'm 55 years old. So, when you think things are never going to get better, remember that they do get better. Almost whether you want them to or not.