living in a glass jar.. my foray into blogging and my very first blog-post

I’ve decided I like writing about everyday life and some friends and family have encouraged me to keep writing. I will provide names upon request. Writing home about my travels amused them, so of course, this was all I needed to start blogging. This is a cross between writing about myself and whining about my life, both of which I am perfectly and abundantly capable of doing.

So here goes my first ‘REAL BLOG’ (this predates ‘my-thirdlife’)

Those who know me, know I blurt out stuff all the time. Sometimes I just need to get it out, maybe I’m pondering a dilemma, or some sort of problem, and writing it down clarifies this. Once in a while, an answer will come to me while writing it down. I’m open-minded and much more tolerant of everything in my old age. Stuff that used to annoy or bug me still does, but it just doesn’t matter anymore. Unless of course, it is stupidity (from which I am not immune) and racism. Being outspoken, a trait that runs in our family can be a good thing or bad, depending on who’s reading this I guess.

 I don’t judge people based on colour, race, religion, gender, sexuality, size, or abilities. I base it on whether or not they are assholes or not. Please be forewarned that nothing is sacred either and I am curious about everything. Being married for forty years and now living a single life has me pondering everything. Relationships, in particular, my friends, family, and of course men, mentally and physically be forewarned again.

Having lost three of my younger siblings and my parents makes me fully aware of my mortality. The hype about living in the present is true. Losing those that should be outliving me, makes me humble. I now live in the present but that can have a downside as well. Making plans for future events with friends and family can be problematic, see, I don’t want to miss that cheap last-minute flight to Cuba. I have priorities now that I’m single.

 I’m not sure how many of you have been reading my journals of the last trip my girlfriend and I just got back from, but I have a little update on that cold and cough that had me wanting to shoot myself and my girlfriend’s offer to buy the gun. I wrote about a persistent cough that had me coughing all night sometimes. I also had to leave some shows on our cruise, because of this.

 Once home, I made a doctor’s appointment, I am assuming a dose of antibiotics to get rid of this cold once and for all.  I get in to see him right away and he sends me for a chest x-ray where I know all this congestion is going show up.  He calls me the next day and it turns out the x-ray is clear. So I ask him ‘What the heck’ only not so harshly.  He says he’s taking me off of the blood pressure meds I have been taking for years. I challenge him on this, this is NOT a dry cough, it has just turned into that recently because I have been coughing up crap for over a month now.

 I don’t take well to any pills, but I have been taking these for years with no side effects, famous last words. Even ibuprofen is used sparingly, I have been taking that more than usual because of a niggling back pain I have been experiencing. Anyway, he says “Do you want to keep coughing?” This shuts me up, ya I know, he gets tired of listening to me too, so he wants me to come in.

I get off the phone and immediately google ramipril, the meds I’ve been taking. I see I have six out of nine of the side effects that this drug could cause. Jesus, I only went in for the cough/cold. I didn’t tell him about the back pain or the dizziness, which I attributed to the ship. My sore throat has been off and on, the sporadic headaches, and the fatigue. I need to have a nap in the afternoon most days and sometimes these little naps turn into two and three-hour sleeps. Then there is the confusion, omg now I have ALL the symptoms hah! Thank goodness I don’t have the rash. This makes me wonder how many people are walking around sick and don’t realize it could be their meds doing this.

Remember that rash? Well, I awoke the next morning itchy and scratching and thought what is this? Red raised bumps like mosquito bites all over me. I am not making this up or exaggerating. I have these bites all over me and I am in my special hell. So my trip to my doctor has us debating, not a rash or maybe from the hot tub, I tend to disagree with that one.  He gives me a prescription for some cream to ‘soothe’ the itch, a recommendation for ‘Reactine’ which holds down the itch factor considerably. I think these are sand flea bites from Roatan in Honduras, we were snorkeling there a week earlier. They have only now come into ‘bloom’. I text my girlfriend and she is doing the itchy scratchy thing as well. This seems weird that they show up a week later but I google it, seems it’s a well-kept secret there. So I have new meds, a dose of ‘Reactine’ in me and I am armed with ‘itch cream’ talk about living in the present.

 What was my lesson here?  Don’t overlook the obvious and never assume anything.  Hopefully, if someone else is reading this and suffering some of these symptoms and I feel like I have been sick for close to a year now with one symptom or another, maybe it can save someone else some misery. Oh, and always google it, it’ll drive your doctor crazy because then he has to explain away all the misinformation you have been accumulating on Google. Hmmm also don’t get caught up in all the symptoms, the more symptoms I read about, the more I had, and it happens :  )

ok…I’m done

postscript

If you enjoyed this, well maybe that is too strong a feeling. Hmmmmm if my writing didn’t annoy you too much, I will be encouraged to keep writing if you press the like button. I will not solicit, stalk or badger you in any way, shape, or form. Well ok, I’ll try not to write about you either, how’s that?

copyright 2013