Month: July 2017

My Savior – All Sorts

I’m constantly mystified by the way my dog’s mind works. You’ve already seen that Hurley is immune to trains, trucks, and motorcycles, yet is still somehow deeply terrified of thunder. Now you know that she sees pool noodles as a threat too.

My parents have a swimming pool and when we went there last summer, Hurley didn’t know what to do with it. She’d been in lakes and ponds before, but she’d never seen a pool. She was too scared to jump into it, so she circled it anxiously instead, trying to decide if it was a threat. And then we busted out the pool noodles and she lost it. She began carefully picking them out of the water one by one, shaking them vigorously, then piling them neatly by the corner of the house. We all found it hilarious.

I love this dog.

House Sitting – The Crohn’s Saga Part 56

The Crohn’s Saga has officially returned! I had a my surgery a month ago and am recovering nicely. Thank you all for the thoughtful messages.

As far as The Crohn’s Saga goes, in this comic, we are back in October 2016. I’d been on disability from work since that July and I was home after having been hospitalized for a few weeks in September. My doctors were trying cyclosporine as a last-ditch effort to get me stable and get the Entyvio to kick in, but the side effects (including the shakes) were wearing me down. In the previous comic, Relaxation Trip, you saw that I was starting to fall apart physically, mentally, and emotionally. I needed relief, but my doctors said I was too sick to go on a trip.

Luckily, my parents were going out of town for a long weekend. That sounds terrible, I know, but please remember that I was desperate for an escape. A weekend in the suburbs where I could just be alone and not have to talk about anything or think about being sick in front of anyone would be heaven.

This request caught me off guard though. It was such a normal (and reasonable) request, but I hadn’t been living a normal life for a long time. In fact, I was so far out of normal and so far into a reality where sickness dictated everything I could do, that this otherwise ordinary question snapped me into self-awareness. It made me realize how sick I was, how long I’d been that way, and how much it had altered my life. This sudden awareness made me scared, sure, but mostly it just made me sad.

 

Parking Like A Jerk – The Worst Person Ever

Parking like a jerk is definitely one of those little things that will make people think you are the worst person ever. I had to have surgery about a month ago and I was almost late because it took forever to find a parking spot. It took forever to find a parking spot because 1 in 20 cars was taking up 2 spaces. It did not help my stress.

Parking like a jerk is either done intentionally or unintentionally. Unintentionally means you’re human. Sometimes we have a lot on our minds and it’s easy to park and leave without a second thought. This is understandable. However, when you’re in a place like a hospital parking lot, everyone probably has a lot on their minds, so you’ve please got to be aware. As with most of The Worst Person Evers, the takeaway here is to just put in the minimal effort to help out others.

Oh, and parking like a jerk intentionally means you’re a lousy selfish inhuman monster and I will feel shameful joy if I see your car get keyed.

Premonitions – The Crohn’s Saga Part 57

Premonitions are kind of annoying, aren’t they? There I was, finally enjoying my relaxation trip, when I was struck by a sense of dread that really harshed my mellow. You see, when I go for a trip to unwind, I go for gusto. This time, I was house sitting for my parents up in the suburbs. I made a trip to grocery store to get some snacks (as much as I was able to eat), I watched the sunset over a lake, I built a fire in the fireplace, and I was settling into a nice night of cable tv when this lousy feeling of impending doom settled in.

The problem with premonitions is the same problem with fate. Even if you do have a sense of the future, there really isn’t anything you can about it. So, all you end up doing is stressing out. It’s not fair.

Fortunately, I was also on a really high dose of prednisone, so my attention span could only hold for a few minutes. I was able to get over it and unwind. God bless The Evil Dead.

Kind Words – The Crohn’s Saga Part 58

When you’re down and out after having been sick for what feels like forever, kind words from your doctor can make all the difference. At this point, I’d been sick for a year and a half, and I’d been really sick for about 6 months. I couldn’t exercise, do yoga, meditate, or drink, and even though the weekend I spent house sitting was great, it was only a temporary escape. I was starting to feel like I couldn’t handle any of this anymore.

Good physicians understand that care is about more than just medicine. They get that sometimes patients need validation, support, and sympathy. They can step out of a clinical role and be human. I’d never had a doctor apologize for not being able to heal me before, and that level of compassion and humanity meant the world to me. Knowing that they cared kept me going. It was probably a dangerous thing for them to risk that honesty, but I will always be grateful for it.

I am lucky to have such excellent caregivers.