I have felt truly unwell for the past week or two. Really, it started with the abscess in my mouth and the two weeks on antibiotics waiting for the surgeon to pull the tooth. Then the dry-socketed tooth and the resurgence of the abscess and another run of different antibiotics for a sinus infection. All those antibiotics killed “the bad stuff” and the good stuff. My gut is most unhappy with me. My back’s none too happy either, but this is because the confluence of medications I take sometimes gets completely out of hand.
I take what is considered the maximum load of blood pressure medications. “The full load,” my cardiologist commented. Because of earlier surgery for stomach and upper intestinal ulcers, I also take a maximum amount of antacids. Sometimes, I can back off them for a while, but eventually, I get sick and have no choice. They aren’t good for you. I also take some medication for sleeping and some for pain. In total, it adds up to a lot of medication and sometimes, instead of helping me, it makes me sick.
Now is one of those times. I have to make decisions about what to stop taking. I’m afraid to stop taking the BP meds for obvious reasons. I can’t completely stop the sleep medications or I really don’t sleep at all and it’s bad enough as it is. So the pain medication goes first. To a point which is when I realize if I don’t take something, I’m going to stop functioning entirely. I cut down on the antacids. I switch to over-the-counter pain meds — which work very well except I’m not supposed to ever take anything with aspirin in it, but sometimes it’s the only thing that works. I apologize to my stomach for this and eat another yogurt. I also try to up the amount of “real” food I eat. It’s not that I’m on a diet because I’m not. I’m not supposed to diet — ever — but I don’t eat much. I’m surprisingly lumpy for someone who eats as little as I eat, but gravity has had its way with me, so I’m 12-pounds lighter than last year, but I look 10-pounds heavier. Oddly, my pants size dropped, but my waistline got bigger.
All of this explain that I don’t feel well, but in theory, there’s nothing wrong with me except what was wrong with me when I felt better. Today I got up the courage to take a really hot shower and wash my hair. I should have done it yesterday, but Garry beat me to the shower. He had previously cleaned the whole house, so he earned it.
By the time he emerged, I was too tired to try.
Thus dawns a new day. I decided to make fried eggs on English muffins with cheese to go with coffee. Usually, I just have coffee and maybe a muffin or a cookie, but my body has been screaming for food. Not snacks, not whatever I could grab from the fridge. After coffee, perhaps bolstered by having actually eaten breakfast — and while in the shower, I noticed that a device I bought more than a year ago which is supposed to catch one’s hair before it gurgles down the drain. It was sitting on a shelf in the shower. I have another one that works better, so I don’t use it. I turned it over and it was grimy on the bottom with a hint of mold.
I THREW IT IN THE TRASH!
I took that “good-fer” and DUMPED IT right into the old trash can. It was a magic moment. Every now and then, I get inspirational and realize I do not need to keep every item I own, even if I paid for it but never use it — and probably never will. I can throw it out! What a concept! Which I did. It did not cure my stomach or make my head stop hurting, but there was a certain triumph in that brief moment of disposal. I felt like a winner. I had thrown away an item I didn’t need and no one had to force me to do it. Usually it is my son saying: “Do you use it? Will you use it? THROW IT AWAY.” Garry is no help because he saves everything. He is the king of good-fers. At least he has stopped buying more things he won’t use to go with the collection.
Today, I triumphed over uselessness. On this special day, I disposed of a bathroom thingie all by myself. Maybe I can find one more item to throw away. Where there’s life, there’s hope.
