Wellbeing

The truth about me

This is me. This is not me. This is who I’d be if I could be me without fear. I’ve often wanted to talk about work in this space because it’s such a big part of my life – possibly too big. There are three important things in my life: my family, work, and you. This poses several problems. You’ll notice there’s a big hole in that group. Nowhere do I mention…
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Wellbeing

All this time

A few months ago I reached a relatively low point in my life. I wasn’t dying, starving, lonely, unemployed, or bankrupt so I use the word low lightly. I visited my psychiatrist six weeks ago. (I’m not ashamed to admit it, I have one of those.) After the last few years chatting with me, even she was a little concerned by my appearance. My sleep situation was worse than ever. I was…
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Family and FriendsWellbeing

Life and cream soda

My Lightning lost game seven to the team of my youth. I’d like to introduce Chara’s long stick to his large intestine as much as the next Lightning fan, because Florida is my home now. When I say I’m going home, I’m always referring to Dunedin, not Boston or Billerica. It took a long time for this place to become home. We moved from a neighborhood of young families and…
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Wellbeing

Vindication

It’s not the kind of vindication I wanted. Some of us go through life deluding ourselves that our experiences are wholly unique. We experience an accident or fall victim to illness and we believe we are alone. We are not alone, but we don’t know it. Maybe it’s because we’re unique among our peers, where our physical and mental injuries are concerned. The internet makes the world a little…
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Wellbeing

In the UF years

People romanticize snippets of the past and I’m no different. If you listen to me talk about my UF years, you’d think: 1. I got straight As.* 2. I spent four years in Gainesville with Cheryl, a time overflowing with love, joy, learning, and fulfillment. 3. Ambrosia came with every meal. They only had enough to serve it as a side though.** 4. Classmates followed me on campus, collecting…
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Wellbeing

Good heart, bad heartburn

Good news people! Come on, how often to you hear those words come from my lips? I’m the human downer. Women shield their children’s eyes and run screaming the other way when they see me coming. That’s a true story by the way (no it isn’t). This morning, minutes before I typed this in fact (but after I called Cheryl – can’t have the wife thinking I love my blog…
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Wellbeing

News from the front

As some of you may know, yesterday was my nuclear enhanced stress test and echocardiogram – or what will forevermore be known as, “the day my legs died.” From a layman’s perspective, it seemed my heart was working even though I’m in terrible shape, My legs were killing me as I kept going and going on the damn treadmill, waiting for my heart rate to reach the target…
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Wellbeing

He laughed

Do want to hear something funny? Who doesn’t, that’s what I wanna know? It’s not human. It’s un-frigging-American! But enough already. It seems I may have heart disease. Did you bust your gut? Maybe blow a few rivets? You gotta hand it to my body. It’s a regular… well… some comedian who’s really funny. There are five-year-olds who deal with worse…
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Wellbeing

One year

On this day, one year ago, I learned my leukemia was not in remission anymore. The disease I think about every day anyway, was back on active duty. But you know what? The numbers from blood tests the docs look at to determine when it’s time to start chemotherapy haven’t changed since then. The disease remains better than the cure, so I continue to wait. My red blood cell count, along…
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Wellbeing

Piles of life

Like many of my posts, I wrote the lion’s share of this one some time ago. I was inspired to polish and post it by a friend’s recent, much better post. Let me tell you a little something you may not know about sinusitis. I do not like sinusitis. I do not like it with a nose. I do not like it when it blows. I do not like it in my head. I do not like it lying in a bed. It’s been…
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