Tough Day

My stomach and I have not been seeing eye to eye today. I had some problems yesterday that seem to have cleared up by this morning, but there has been a backlash that is trying my patience.

All day today I have been dealing with literal hunger pains. My stomach is empty enough that it hurts. When I try to eat though, it gets rid of the pain but makes me queasy and bloated and uncomfortable. So much so that I have to stop eating. That means that about an hour and a half to two hours after I eat the hunger pain comes back.

I made a small chicken patty and a handful of french fries for lunch. I finished the chicken but could only manage a couple of fries before I had to stop. For dinner I made a hamburger and some tater tots (my wife loves tater tots so I made them for her because she’s amazing and I like making things for her) and I only managed about half of the burger. I just had to stop. Almost exactly an hour after dinner I started feeling the empty stomach blues starting up again so I managed a small snack. Maybe that will hold me over for another hour.

I know that this is going to clear itself up in a day or two (it always does) so I will be fine either tomorrow or the next day. It’s just going to be a long night tonight. I think my stomach is going to make sleeping difficult.

Also, I just want to note this for my own mental health… not that it affects anything or anything… I didn’t write about it yesterday but I thought about it a lot. Yesterday was the second anniversary of my mother’s passing. Maybe my stomach is just manifesting feeling sad about missing my mom. Maybe my stomach knows, you know? I really can’t believe it’s been two years already.

One of Those Sad Moments

Today had one of those moments. One of those sad moments that jump out of nowhere and make you sad.

Tomorrow would have been my parents’ 57th wedding anniversary. Instead it’s the second anniversary since she passed away and that is making me sad today.

I did go and visit her today. That made me feel a little better. It’s funny how that works, right?

My Parents at My Age

Daily writing prompt
What were your parents doing at your age?

I’m 52 years old. I’ll be 53 in May and suddenly that seems immensely older than 52. Weird, this aging thing, isn’t it?

When my mother was 52 my father was 50 and I was about 22. That was 1992. At that time I think my sister was still teaching 1st grade in Long Beach, CA and my brother was still in high school. I had dropped out of college (music school) and was either working at UPS loading tractor trailor trucks, or I was starting to attend Northeast Broadcasting School in their eight month audio recording certificate program. 

I’m not sure of the timeline for my parents. My father was running an accounting department. I think he was still at the scrap metal company in Tewksbury. That wasn’t the happiest time in his professional life, but it was better than the last days with the restaurant company. My mother… I think my mother was working as a bookkeeper at the electronics place in Chelmsford. My father would eventually work there as well. He ran the accounting department and my mother worked for him. My brother interned there as well, and when I went back to school for real a few years later I worked there as an overnight cleaning guy. Things seemed good for my parents in those days.

Apart from that, I have to expect that my parents spent a lot of time worrying about what a fuck up I was turning into after first deciding to go to music school, then dropping out, then going to a useless tech school to study a useless field, and then turning into a warehouse flunky for a few years. It was 1997 when I went back to school for real. I hope that eased their worries.

1992 was a long way away from my mother’s brain tumor and the dementia it lead to, and my father’s heart attack and all the trouble that lead to. 1992 was a pretty happy year for me, personally, even if I was turning into a professional fuck up. I wouldn’t change a thing as it all lead me to where I am today. If I had to change anything though, that brain tumor and the heart attack would be high on the list. Hell… they would pretty much be the list.


Hey AI Thing, generate an image of a Jedi Knight visiting his parents.

Mom

I am freaking out a little right now. The freaking out is 100% irrational but it’s there nonetheless.

My father just called me. The nursing home my mother is in called him to let him know that my mother has Covid-19.

She’s as vaccinated and boosted as a human can get and I am absolutely positive that she will beat it and recover… but I am still panicking right now. Shit shit shit, my mother has Covid.

Admitted for the Night

My mother is still in the hospital. She’ll be there overnight. She has a UTI but she’s in a lot of pain. They are admitting her. That’s a good thing, I think, but she’s not happy about it.

Work has been stressful AF today, as the kids these days like to say. That combined with my mother’s situation has been enough to keep me from stressing over my own doctor’s appointment tomorrow. I am going to see the Cardiologist. I need Psych, Cardiology, and Dietary to sign off on my weight loss surgery. Psych is all set. Cardiology is next. Dietary will be on going for a while longer. I don’t know how much longer, I just know it’s on going.

I don’t know what they are going to do to me tomorrow. I’m assuming an EKG or something. I have my fingers crossed that it won’t involve a stress test. I need this to go well. I’m not feeling the terror I usually feel leading up to an appointment, but it’ll probably come soon enough.

The contractor is coming back this afternoon. There’s another one coming tomorrow. After that? I don’t know. My in-the-office day will be Wednesday this week instead of Thursday. That’s probably going to mess up my internal calendar in a big way. I’ll live.

Okay. Lunch break over. Back to work.

PS: It’s NHL trade deadline day today and the Bruins just picked up another defenseman. Also, I heard they extended DeBrusk? The guy who’s been asking for a trade all year. Interesting. I’m cool with that.

Okay, now back to work.

Send Some Happy Thoughts

My mother isn’t well today. Stomach pains. They drove her up to Lowell General to get checked out. Her plumbing is working fine so it’s not that.

Would you be so kind as to send my mother some happy thoughts and get well soon vibes? I’m sending off the mega powerful Red Head Vibes (yes, capital letters) already but we need all the help we can get.

Thanks, internet.