Both Adored Wife and Social Hurricane take numerous regular prescriptions. I take several herbal and natural supplements, Basement Artist has a prescription for an inhaler but rarely uses it (she takes over the counter stuff as needed), and Graphics Magician is currently on antibiotics for strep throat but otherwise takes medicine very infrequently.
But AW and SH need this stuff. AW is on meds for seizure control, nerve pain, anxiety, blood pressure, and a couple of things I can't keep up with. The Hurricane has prescriptions for stuff to control mood swings, depression, anxiety, and hallucinations.
Better living through chemistry.
So when we had a household snafu a few weeks ago and both ran out of certain medications for a day or two it was a bad day or two. In Adored Wife's case she went about a day and a half without a prescription that helps manage nerve pain, and she spent a particularly unpleasant day until we were able to get it refilled. Social Hurricane went a couple of days without the "mood swing" magic pills, and had a very difficult time of it. It helped that she knew what was going on, but it wasn't easy for her.
Although, as Adored Wife puts it "at least we know the medicine works." Yay, silver lining.
The problem was partly my letting a ball drop, partly a communications breakdown with a doctor's office, partly the Hurricane's inattentiveness, partly an unusually full week, and partly the unexpected Saturday closing of the drug store because they had a brief staffing crisis. There were quite a few factors going on but I felt really bad about the part I played in it, because I wasn't the one having to pay for the mistake.
It's all good now and everybody's feeling much better and hopefully we won't let that happen again, but it's kind of sobering to realize how much we depend on modern medicine.
Hope all's well out there, friends, and God bless.
Monday, November 28, 2016
Thursday, November 24, 2016
Happy Thanksgiving!
Happy Thanksgiving, friends!
In honor of the holiday I'm not going to post about any of the challenges our family, our community, or our country face today.
In fact, one of our coping mechanisms is counting our blessings anyway, and we have plenty of blessings to count.
Today, I'm just thankful.
I'm thankful most of all that God loves me and my sins are forgiven in Jesus' name.
I'm thankful that I can walk, talk, work, and rest.
I'm thankful that there is a roof over my head and there is food in my house and that at least for today I have enough money to pay my bills.
I am thankful that I have a wife who is my best friend.
I am thankful that my children can also walk, talk, work, and rest.
I am thankful for my family, for parents and in-laws and brothers and sisters and cousins and aunts and uncles and nephews and nieces.
I'm thankful for a job where I get along with the people I work with.
I'm thankful for good neighbors.
I'm thankful for the freedoms I enjoy as an American.
I'm thankful for friends with whom I can enjoy doing things.
I'm thankful for books.
I'm thankful for mountains and sunsets and small children and old people and teens and trees and oceans and stars and the moon and dogs and horses and prairies.
I'm thankful for the hope of eternity.
I'm thankful for the promise that God will never leave me.
I'm thankful just to BE.
I'm thankful for you, reading this. As you face your own challenges, friends, (and I know some of you have some big ones,) I'd encourage you also to take time to be thankful to the One Who gives us all good things.
May He bless you today.
In honor of the holiday I'm not going to post about any of the challenges our family, our community, or our country face today.
In fact, one of our coping mechanisms is counting our blessings anyway, and we have plenty of blessings to count.
Today, I'm just thankful.
I'm thankful most of all that God loves me and my sins are forgiven in Jesus' name.
I'm thankful that I can walk, talk, work, and rest.
I'm thankful that there is a roof over my head and there is food in my house and that at least for today I have enough money to pay my bills.
I am thankful that I have a wife who is my best friend.
I am thankful that my children can also walk, talk, work, and rest.
I am thankful for my family, for parents and in-laws and brothers and sisters and cousins and aunts and uncles and nephews and nieces.
I'm thankful for a job where I get along with the people I work with.
I'm thankful for good neighbors.
I'm thankful for the freedoms I enjoy as an American.
I'm thankful for friends with whom I can enjoy doing things.
I'm thankful for books.
I'm thankful for mountains and sunsets and small children and old people and teens and trees and oceans and stars and the moon and dogs and horses and prairies.
I'm thankful for the hope of eternity.
I'm thankful for the promise that God will never leave me.
I'm thankful just to BE.
I'm thankful for you, reading this. As you face your own challenges, friends, (and I know some of you have some big ones,) I'd encourage you also to take time to be thankful to the One Who gives us all good things.
May He bless you today.
Monday, November 21, 2016
Social Hurricane Needs People
We all have our insecurities, I suppose, those areas of our lives where we don't feel confident or together.
I am, as I've mentioned, an extreme introvert, and eldest daughter Basement Artist is almost as extreme as I am. We can get peopled out very easily. I had a VERY full people day this past Wednesday and, when I finally got home, I just needed to sit and watch "Outrageous Acts of Science" and not talk to anybody at all for half an hour. Then I felt better.
Social Hurricane, my second daughter, is almost as extreme an extrovert as I am an introvert, and I don't always appreciate that fact. She doesn't do well with alone time--she gets nervous and edgy if she's not interacting with somebody, unless she has some very involved task or chore to take her mind off of it. She loves social media, loves working with people, loves going places and doing things with friends. And sometimes I need to keep that in mind. When the Artist and I are chilling out on our own with a book or a writing project or a chore we're recharging. When Social Hurricane is in a similar situation she's running down and getting more and more insecure and needing people.
And I'm not overly proud of this--I've harangued a bit here and there about how extroverts don't understand introverts and expect us to be like them. And extroverts outnumber introverts substantially, and it's a world that caters to them. But in our household we have two extreme introverts, one who pretty much falls in the middle of the spectrum (Adored Wife is balanced n the center of the scale), and one slight extrovert (Graphics Magician leans toward the extroverted, but only a very little--he has lots of introverted traits.) We only have one true extrovert living here so, in our home, the introverts rule and sometimes that gives the Hurricane some troubles.
And she's adapted remarkably well to that, but I need to be more sympathetic toward it than I am.
Hope all's well out there, friends, and God bless.
I am, as I've mentioned, an extreme introvert, and eldest daughter Basement Artist is almost as extreme as I am. We can get peopled out very easily. I had a VERY full people day this past Wednesday and, when I finally got home, I just needed to sit and watch "Outrageous Acts of Science" and not talk to anybody at all for half an hour. Then I felt better.
Social Hurricane, my second daughter, is almost as extreme an extrovert as I am an introvert, and I don't always appreciate that fact. She doesn't do well with alone time--she gets nervous and edgy if she's not interacting with somebody, unless she has some very involved task or chore to take her mind off of it. She loves social media, loves working with people, loves going places and doing things with friends. And sometimes I need to keep that in mind. When the Artist and I are chilling out on our own with a book or a writing project or a chore we're recharging. When Social Hurricane is in a similar situation she's running down and getting more and more insecure and needing people.
And I'm not overly proud of this--I've harangued a bit here and there about how extroverts don't understand introverts and expect us to be like them. And extroverts outnumber introverts substantially, and it's a world that caters to them. But in our household we have two extreme introverts, one who pretty much falls in the middle of the spectrum (Adored Wife is balanced n the center of the scale), and one slight extrovert (Graphics Magician leans toward the extroverted, but only a very little--he has lots of introverted traits.) We only have one true extrovert living here so, in our home, the introverts rule and sometimes that gives the Hurricane some troubles.
And she's adapted remarkably well to that, but I need to be more sympathetic toward it than I am.
Hope all's well out there, friends, and God bless.
Thursday, November 17, 2016
The Cat Gets Old
Pets have pretty much always been a part of our family life, ever since that first stray cat twenty-something years ago that I told Adored Wife not to feed because once you feed them they're yours. And that cat became ours, adopted in Texas, moved to two different places in Virginia, and then lived for several years in West Virginia before dying of a more or less contented old age.
Over the years we've had two ferrets, a few goldfish, several small rodentish things, and four cats. We've never had a dog, although both AW and I had dogs as children. They're a huge responsibility and what with one thing and another in our lives we've just never been comfortable taking one on. We're currently down to one cat, Oscar, and he's getting old.
It's tough when they start getting old. It happened pretty fast, too. It seems as though within the space of a month he went from being a spry and obnoxious overfed feline to a lazy and obnoxious lean old codger of a feline. Mostly these days he's looking for warm places to sleep.
It's going to be tough when we lose him. Graphics Magician in particular is very fond of him, although Basement Artist also seems to like him sometimes. (The rest of us more or less tolerate him.) But hopefully he'll have an enjoyable and peaceful "golden years" experience.
Hope all's well out there, friends, and God bless.
Over the years we've had two ferrets, a few goldfish, several small rodentish things, and four cats. We've never had a dog, although both AW and I had dogs as children. They're a huge responsibility and what with one thing and another in our lives we've just never been comfortable taking one on. We're currently down to one cat, Oscar, and he's getting old.
It's tough when they start getting old. It happened pretty fast, too. It seems as though within the space of a month he went from being a spry and obnoxious overfed feline to a lazy and obnoxious lean old codger of a feline. Mostly these days he's looking for warm places to sleep.
It's going to be tough when we lose him. Graphics Magician in particular is very fond of him, although Basement Artist also seems to like him sometimes. (The rest of us more or less tolerate him.) But hopefully he'll have an enjoyable and peaceful "golden years" experience.
Hope all's well out there, friends, and God bless.
Monday, November 14, 2016
AW Runs the Tech Booth
As regular readers of this blog will know, Adored Wife deals with chronic nerve pain and a host of other fun and enthralling challenges.
She's also very passionate about and involved with the local community theater. I'm a theater geek myself and support her interest (although sometimes I think she needs to pace herself a little more carefully.) She's had to make all kinds of accommodations and adaptations regarding her health issues to be able to do what she does, and a lot of the other volunteers at the theater have ALSO made accommodations for her. (She does a lot of work over there--they consider the flexibility well worth it.)
On the artistic side she's been an actor, a producer, a director, a stage manager, a "food props" coordinator, on numerous occasions. On the management side she works extensively with facilities and concessions.
She's never before run lights or sound for a show from the tech booth, and wanted to try that out. So, for the theater's recent production of "The Chalk Garden," she stayed in the booth and ran the lighting board and sound computer from there.
Climbing or descending stairs takes her a little longer than it does most people, so she allowed herself extra time. During intermissions and longer scenes with no lighting changes she sat down on the stairs and leaned back against a pillow she'd brought for the purpose, to take a little of the strain off of her neck. And, of course, she'd come home from a show absolutely exhausted and need to lie down for a while, but that was all right. It was only about six performances and a handful of rehearsals so it wasn't so bad.
And she had fun, and she can check that off her list. Determination--you gotta love it.
Hope all's well out there, friends, and God bless.
She's also very passionate about and involved with the local community theater. I'm a theater geek myself and support her interest (although sometimes I think she needs to pace herself a little more carefully.) She's had to make all kinds of accommodations and adaptations regarding her health issues to be able to do what she does, and a lot of the other volunteers at the theater have ALSO made accommodations for her. (She does a lot of work over there--they consider the flexibility well worth it.)
On the artistic side she's been an actor, a producer, a director, a stage manager, a "food props" coordinator, on numerous occasions. On the management side she works extensively with facilities and concessions.
She's never before run lights or sound for a show from the tech booth, and wanted to try that out. So, for the theater's recent production of "The Chalk Garden," she stayed in the booth and ran the lighting board and sound computer from there.
Climbing or descending stairs takes her a little longer than it does most people, so she allowed herself extra time. During intermissions and longer scenes with no lighting changes she sat down on the stairs and leaned back against a pillow she'd brought for the purpose, to take a little of the strain off of her neck. And, of course, she'd come home from a show absolutely exhausted and need to lie down for a while, but that was all right. It was only about six performances and a handful of rehearsals so it wasn't so bad.
And she had fun, and she can check that off her list. Determination--you gotta love it.
Hope all's well out there, friends, and God bless.
Thursday, November 10, 2016
Young Ladies Doing the Adulting Thing
We have two young ladies living in our home. Both of them have made great strides at this "adulting" thing in recent days.
They both have some challenges against them. The younger, Social Hurricane, we've talked about a fair amount--anxiety and bipolar disorder and hallucinations. She has a lot on her plate.
I'm not sure if we've ever talked about the elder daughter's fundamental insecurity issues.
Basement Artist was born three months early, and had a very rough year or so. One hundred and two days in the hospital, four surgeries before she was eighteen months old. It's left her with a permanently quiet voice and a spectacular scar on her side. But we've also thought over the years that it's left her with chronic insecurity issues. Developmental psychologists theorize that, in the very early days of life, a baby will either learn that the world is safe and can be trusted, or she will learn that the world is an unsafe place.
It's entirely possible (and I'm quite convinced of this personally) that BA's very rocky start has left her, deep in her psyche, feeling that the world is perilous and risky. We've discussed this, and she pretty much agrees with me.
How this works out for her in practice is that she has to work, and work hard, to overcome a natural tendency toward fear. Unless she deliberately compensates for it she defaults toward seeking the routine, the familiar, the deliberately unadventurous. This has given her a great deal of trouble doing the "adulting" thing, because it's much easier to stick with the known than to venture out into the untried, especially because these days she's doing lots more things without a parent by her side.
To her considerable credit, she DOES work hard at compensating for it. She seeks out new challenges, sallies forth into unfamiliar social situations, ventures into areas beyond the tried and true. I salute her--it takes more courage for Basement Artist to apply for a job than it would take for me to face down a lion.
Hope all's well out there, friends, and God bless.
They both have some challenges against them. The younger, Social Hurricane, we've talked about a fair amount--anxiety and bipolar disorder and hallucinations. She has a lot on her plate.
I'm not sure if we've ever talked about the elder daughter's fundamental insecurity issues.
Basement Artist was born three months early, and had a very rough year or so. One hundred and two days in the hospital, four surgeries before she was eighteen months old. It's left her with a permanently quiet voice and a spectacular scar on her side. But we've also thought over the years that it's left her with chronic insecurity issues. Developmental psychologists theorize that, in the very early days of life, a baby will either learn that the world is safe and can be trusted, or she will learn that the world is an unsafe place.
It's entirely possible (and I'm quite convinced of this personally) that BA's very rocky start has left her, deep in her psyche, feeling that the world is perilous and risky. We've discussed this, and she pretty much agrees with me.
How this works out for her in practice is that she has to work, and work hard, to overcome a natural tendency toward fear. Unless she deliberately compensates for it she defaults toward seeking the routine, the familiar, the deliberately unadventurous. This has given her a great deal of trouble doing the "adulting" thing, because it's much easier to stick with the known than to venture out into the untried, especially because these days she's doing lots more things without a parent by her side.
To her considerable credit, she DOES work hard at compensating for it. She seeks out new challenges, sallies forth into unfamiliar social situations, ventures into areas beyond the tried and true. I salute her--it takes more courage for Basement Artist to apply for a job than it would take for me to face down a lion.
Hope all's well out there, friends, and God bless.
Monday, November 7, 2016
Adored Wife Toughs It Out
I'm swiping this directly from Adored Wife's Facebook post of a few days back:
Yesterday I had my annual physical. I see quite a few doctors regularly, so this was mainly an overview of everything.
We went over all the things that are wrong with me. The list is huge, as many of you know.
Then, we went over all the things I am doing to combat them, circumvent them to function, or just bull my way through them.
At the end she looked at me and said. "Well. You are fine."
And you know what. I really am.
And she really is.
Hope all's well out there, friends, and God bless.
Yesterday I had my annual physical. I see quite a few doctors regularly, so this was mainly an overview of everything.
We went over all the things that are wrong with me. The list is huge, as many of you know.
Then, we went over all the things I am doing to combat them, circumvent them to function, or just bull my way through them.
At the end she looked at me and said. "Well. You are fine."
And you know what. I really am.
And she really is.
Hope all's well out there, friends, and God bless.
Thursday, November 3, 2016
My Dad's Coming Home
My father's been in rehab the past few months, and is scheduled to come home today.
I know this "The Neighbor's Think We're Normal" blog tends to focus on my immediate family, but I owe a lot of the strange man I am today to the strange parents I have, and it's fitting to tell you a little about my dad.
He suffers from chronic stubbornness. The doctor says it's inoperable, and it may eventually prove terminal. In addition he has a leaky heart valve, arthritis, diabetes, circulatory issues, blood pressure problems, balance issues, and fairly significant hearing loss. He's eighty-nine years old and had a nasty infection this past summer and had a really, really bad couple of weeks. We honestly thought we were going to lose him and from the doctor's perspective he had a pretty close call.
He's doing hugely better, but the stubbornness remains, alas, unabated. He's spent the past several weeks in a very competent therapeutic rehabilitation center and has been, by all accounts, charming the socks off of nurses, administrators, therapists, and staff. He's good at that. But he's been wanting to go back home and I have mixed feelings about this myself.. He lives with my older brother who pretty much serves as full-time caregiver (my mom's in an assisted living facility) and he probably ought to be in some sort of facility himself, but he doesn't want to go. And so far, as long as he and my brother can make this work, it seems to be going okay.
I'm very, very happy he's still around. I've had a couple of delightful days with him that have felt like bonus days, and we're glad he's so much stronger and abler than he was. The concern, of course, is that he's not going to keep up with the exercise and the behaving himself when he gets back home and will shortly wind up back in trouble. (My brother's a great guy, but Daddy doesn't listen to him much.) We'll have to see how it works out.
We covet your prayers.
Hope all's well out there, friends, and God bless.
I know this "The Neighbor's Think We're Normal" blog tends to focus on my immediate family, but I owe a lot of the strange man I am today to the strange parents I have, and it's fitting to tell you a little about my dad.
He suffers from chronic stubbornness. The doctor says it's inoperable, and it may eventually prove terminal. In addition he has a leaky heart valve, arthritis, diabetes, circulatory issues, blood pressure problems, balance issues, and fairly significant hearing loss. He's eighty-nine years old and had a nasty infection this past summer and had a really, really bad couple of weeks. We honestly thought we were going to lose him and from the doctor's perspective he had a pretty close call.
He's doing hugely better, but the stubbornness remains, alas, unabated. He's spent the past several weeks in a very competent therapeutic rehabilitation center and has been, by all accounts, charming the socks off of nurses, administrators, therapists, and staff. He's good at that. But he's been wanting to go back home and I have mixed feelings about this myself.. He lives with my older brother who pretty much serves as full-time caregiver (my mom's in an assisted living facility) and he probably ought to be in some sort of facility himself, but he doesn't want to go. And so far, as long as he and my brother can make this work, it seems to be going okay.
I'm very, very happy he's still around. I've had a couple of delightful days with him that have felt like bonus days, and we're glad he's so much stronger and abler than he was. The concern, of course, is that he's not going to keep up with the exercise and the behaving himself when he gets back home and will shortly wind up back in trouble. (My brother's a great guy, but Daddy doesn't listen to him much.) We'll have to see how it works out.
We covet your prayers.
Hope all's well out there, friends, and God bless.
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