Back On The Substack Road
Picking Up Speed....
Like a young child at a parade, the string on the helium balloon lightly tied around their wrist. The marching bands, the baton twirlers, all the glory of a hometown celebration coming down Main Street.
The young child fiddles with the string and the balloon slips away. There is a gasp and the child watches the yellow balloon drift into the sky.
Slipping Away. Floating up to the clouds and the blue sky beyond.
Simply, your health can act like that yellow orb and disappear in a moment. Poof. One day you feel on top of the world and the next day you can’t get out of bed.
This was a momentous year for my 67-year-old body. Shit, I know some folks very well who are doing it harder than me because of their cancer or heart or whatever. For me, I have hardly been medicalized as an adult. Until my open heart surgery, I was on no prescriptions. I very rarely visited a doctor.
In brief, this has not been a great year for my body.
January-Diagnosed with severe aortic stenosis and something needed to be done.
February-Angiogram shows I need Open Heart Surgery. Scheduled for May 7.
As you can see with some of my photos there was still life to live in 2024.
April-Respiratory Illness- This hung around for weeks with a nasty cough. I thought I was going to have to reschedule my heart surgery, but I got better 10 days before the surgery.
May-My new bovine aortic valve was installed on the 7th of May.
May-June-July-3 months of recovery. During the first week home, I had tachycardia and had to go back to hospital for 2 days. Dr. Sparks shocked my heart back to a normal pulse rate. Dr. Sparks….you cannot make this up.
August- headed off to East Arnhem Land. I was well enough to make the trip which I was excited about after hanging around the house for 3 months. Lo and behold I get Covid Day 1 of the Garma Festival.
August/September-Recovery time around the Great Ocean Road with a couple of housesits. I planned to start walking big time and take up Yoga and some upper body exercises with a physio. BOOM! As you can see, I end up making a spinning video for my daughter, and I get dizzy and lose my balance. I crashed into a hard wood table and fractured 2 ribs.
I wish I had left the video running it would have gone viral, instead of me.
October-On the 12th of October I get food poisioning at a festival I was very excited to be at. It ruined that day. About 8 days after the food issue, I come down with some stomach bug that could have been related. This sent me to bed for 8 days where I did nothing but sleep, fight headaches and sweat through 2-3 t-shirts a night. I really thought I had something bad.
As of the first week of November, I am feeling myself again. Blood tests have shown nothing so I guess it was some sort of viral nonsense. I lost about 5 kilos.
Yeah, so what? We all get sick. We all die. I can’t argue with that.
What I am trying to raise awareness to is that none of us have any idea when some health issue will take over our lives for a week, 2 weeks, or for the rest of our days. It’s sobering when you have been in good health most of your days.
I lost my ability to think, to write, to concentrate, to move. to simply be me.
Living with someone in chronic pain and inflammatory issues I cherish my health as I see her suffer off and on. She should be complaining!
Spring is here and it is time to rebuild. I had a fabulous shiatsu treatment last week and that moved some things around energetically. My walking is back on the list of things to do and my next step is to build up my upper body strength. It is true, if you don’t use it, you will lose it. My arms look like toothpicks and parts of my anatomy feel my age.
That’s where I sit today. With all of my being focused on the US election I know the next few days is going to be an intriguing ride with pundits and fools and a news cycle that won’t quit.
I’ve missed writing and that’s whay I am dashing this one out. I am back and I hope to get back to some reviews, writing more about my Acaciaville days ( I know you just can’t wait for the changa period) and whatever else brings me to my keyboard.
It is Tuesday the 5th of November here in Australia. When tomorrow becomes today in America things will get weird. Hold on.
Things are better. Everything changes.
I’m still enjoying the trip even if I feel like I missed a bunch of 2024.
Bring on acacia ville. Good your bank champ !!!