On sick leave.
Good evening, Netizens...
At my ripening age in life, I am constantly surrounded by a mix of old and true friends, and a few ghosts that drift aimlessly around my memories giving me vast and plentiful memories of my past. What is perhaps most-distressing to me are the numbers of those I know and love who, like myself, are suffering the pains of old age, seemingly wasting away before my bleary eyes.
My partner, Jeanie, who sometimes writes in Community Comment, is bravely fighting kidney disease on dialysis, and recently went through a bout with various kinds of blood disorders, and recovered , thank God. Sooner or later, according to Jeanie, they will be removing one of her kidneys. As of a month ago, I saw Jeanie face-to-face and could barely see the ravages her ailments were subjecting her to. That is probably a mark of Jeanie's hidden strengths, as I never could tell when she was undergoing dialysis.
However, another shock came yesterday when I chanced to call Marty Hibbs, only to discover he was in Scared Heart hospital to have a pacemaker installed. Yeek! If they were going to put a pacemaker in my heart, I feel certain they would have to call in a crack team of cardiac surgeons, given I already have two stents and a heart murmur to my credit. However, Marty immediately made an appointment for later this week for coffee at one of our usual hideaways, which gave me great optimism. My God, he is indomitable!
Having just completed a major work task over the last two or three weeks, and I hasten to add under considerable duress, I know now that my days of performing such work of high intensity could be hazardous to my continuing health. Between my diabetes and heart disease, I simply cannot undertake such arduous tasks in the near future. However, I learned from the error of my ways, as I won't be trying anything so stressful in the future.
Instead I will hold these two and other friends close to my heart, hoping that we all will survive to see many joyous days into the future.
Dave