Wednesday, August 6, 2008

47 - Trip to Oz and Mom Remarries

My 47th year was a busy year. To top it all off I went to Australia in the early spring of 2002 to visit my pal. I was there in ’95, also and managed to see the Great Barrier Reef, Fraser Island, Surfer’s Paradise, etc. The country is so huge and unique. In 2002 I went to a resort in Mooloolaba, a resort in the MacPherson Mountain range (where I encountered not one, but two snakes on a hike (I was lucky to have clean drawers when I got back to the resort), Glass House Mountains…Sunshine Coast. I think it was the last time I had a side splitting howl with laughter while swimming at a resort in Mooloolaba. The Atlantic Ocean is so blistering cold to swim and the resort was just like bath water with waves that tossed me around like a bubble. I had my bum chaffed on the sand from getting tossed around in the water and I had a great hoot over it.

My Mom married her sweetheart in October and they moved here to Smallville. They are so happy and my step-father never takes the smile off his face. He said it took him 60 years to get her.

I am pushing on through this tx and lately I have been worried about how my mega time-off I have been taking may make my employer investigate why I’m taking so much time off. I am not on their medical plan and I do have many accumulated sick days, but I will run out by March 2009. I don’t think they can investigate the true reason because I am not on their health plan and as long as my doc writes me the script notes for being off work.

It stresses me to get my GP doc to write time-off notes for me monthly, but I don’t want to give my employer a time when I shall return to work. 72 week tour of duty sure put a kink in my 48 week plan and I know that it will be months to get some of my health back once I complete this in February 2009.

This is a prime example that nothing in life goes to plan. I shall not go back to work until I am feeling well enough to handle it and my nurse practitioner wants me off until August 2009. I wasn’t willing to do this at first, but as I get into the 47th week of tx I know I’m going to need the time off to recover from the treatment. I am making arrangements to stay off work until that time as I am pretty sure I will be useless to my employer until then. I want my brain back and I need it to do my job.

I am also getting concerned if I’ll have long-term hazards from taking the interferon and riba for such a long time. Will I ever feel well, again?

I attended a wedding last week and the photographer took pictures of all the guests in attendance. She took one of me up close and when I saw the picture I saw a person that was a shell of my former self. My eyes were empty, hollow, blank and sick looking. It wasn’t really me.

No comments: