The Family That Panics Together….

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No, this has not been the best of weeks. It is to be expected, of course. I have problems this time of year every year. Tuesday was the 18th anniversary of the passing of my dear mother of blessed memory. Since late October I’ve been having stomach problems, which has seen me seemingly eating more Gaviscon tablets than food. It hasn’t helped. I called the GI clinic and got to talk to a doctor (that’s how to do your appointments in the winter!! ), and he prescribed a stronger GERD pill. Now I’m going to get a little disgusting here…sorry. Most reflux medications share a common side effect of causing constipation. Plus, I have irritable bowel syndrome (which is painful but NOT problematic the way irritable bowel disease is…they’re two different animals), so having constipation causes a lot of pain in my gut and side. Sunday I felt like I might be passing a kidney stone. I mentioned in the music discussion that I thought the family history of kidney stones might be catching up to me, so I spent a lovely Sunday afternoon in the emergency room. It turns out that I was full of s***. (As my brother likes to say whenever this pops up, “I could have told you that and saved you the trip!” ) So lots of fiber and salads later, and things are better. Oh, AND the anniversary of my mom’s death is over. Tuesday, however, after I came home from Cincinnati, my brother ended up in the emergency room as well with chest pains. Same thing: a panic attack. He said he knew in the back of his mind what the day was. Apparently his subconscious decided to slam him with the news. At about 1 AM I had to go “over the river and through the woods” to pick up up when he was discharged. No problem at all: remember, ten years ago, he hopped on a Greyhound and went up to Chicago to take me home after I’d fallen and broken my right ankle. Of course, to paraphrase the Bible, love doesn’t keep a running tally or score of who did what (see 1st Corinthians 13:4-7). So now it’s snowing and we’re both doing well. For his trouble he got appointments for a stress test and an ECG (I told him that’s typical of the VA: have five panic attacks and the sixth one is free PLUS you get the stress test ). We’re good until next year, when the memory of Mom sneaks up on us. The photo has nothing to do with any of this. It’s one of the squirrels who comes by for breakfast.