Episode 12: Blood Sludge for Turkey Day

I’m still getting the hang of this polycythemia thing.

You see, my blood is too thick. Too many red blood cells. That makes my blood turn to sludge, and sludgy blood is not good. Not only does it put me at higher risk of heart attack, stroke, and pulmonary embolism, it makes me feel as if I’m full of sludgy blood, which means every cell in my body feels heavy and slow and, well, sludgy.

You’d think that feeling would be easy to recognize. The thing is, it’s insidious. I start feeling bad and, because I’ve had fatigue problems for the past few years, I just accept it, even as it gets worse than usual. And then I finally realize, “Oh, yeah, I’ve got that thick blood thing, too … maybe it’s time to get drained.”

Episode 11: Discouragement

Discouragement: the scourge of chronic disease.

I do my best not to wallow in it; I try to push it away when it comes crawling in, like a fog under the door. Even when I’m immersed in it, I hate it. I’m afraid of it. I worry that it’s right, and I’m wrong, and one day I’m just going to have to give in to its seduction.

Yet I’d be lying if I pretended it didn’t happen.

It’s not something I like to talk about. As bestselling author Laura Hillenbrand says about chronic disease, “I didn’t want to talk about it very much because I had the experience of being dismissed and ridiculed.” No one wants to hear a sob story, and persons with chronic disease can look perfectly healthy most of the time, so the inability to apply the stamina of most persons our age to our lives becomes suspect in others' eyes.  Better to only imagine people think you're faking, not to see it in their eyes.

Episode 10: Happy Halloween with Some Creepy Plants and Critters

[Feel free to skip my asides.  I talk too much on this show!  I'll try to mark my tangents with brackets.]

Halloween barely registered with me this year.  Long gone are the days when my kids went out trick-or-treating or I went to parties in Elvira costumes.  [I figured I had the best possible chance of being beautiful when I could disguise my natural appearance with wigs and tons of makeup.  I never had the slightest interest in looking scary, as many of my more confident friends enjoy.  If I were ever to dress up again, I'd want to go as Morticia.  Carolyn Jones as Morticia was the ultimate feminine role model--socially aware, compassionate, smart, and sexy.  Oh, and beautiful.]

But Mother Jones gave me an idea .... Why not report on the creepy plants and critters I've encountered in my yard and elsewhere over the years?  This can be my contribution to Halloween this year, and the Great Pumpkin should be pleased.  Unlike pumpkins, though, most of these species won't be found here in Appalachia at this time of year.