BLOGGER'S SAGA - AGING, AILMENT, VOLCANO PART I

Well....if anyone is still reading here,  I didn't intend to cause alarm when I stopped writing.   As if that wasn't enough,  a few days ago I accidentally hit the wrong key -- geeze,  just such a mistake is how I started this blog years ago -- with the result I published a draft prematurely, so thought I better keep writing then.   A few bloggers noticed the current draft post — only this time I knew how to easily retract this one.   

My lackadaisical attitude toward blogging here has prevailed since the first of the year when once again the idea of taking a writing break, as I've periodically experienced, became very appealing.  Doing so morphed into a much longer period of time than I anticipated as unexpected developments and events ensued.   

Certainly, I continue, as ever, following the U.S. government and political situation as well -- all the shenanigans and worse, including my concern for the potential threats to our freedoms and democracy.   I'm challenged to keep up with it all, as well as what's going on in the rest of the world,  even space travel efforts to get us off this planet -- literally "to the moon" as a TV character some of you will remember, used to say -- or are we going to Mars now?

My salvation is a sense of humor in even the most bizarre, sometimes ridiculous situations that are enough to shake a sane person's sensibility toward what constitutes truth and reality.   I'm pretty confident I'm still capable of differentiating between deliberate lies and the actual facts.  I do lack respect for those intentionally trying to mix the two and am amazed at the number of people who don't bother to check for truth and even seem not to care.    Comfort for me to endure this situation comes in love and caring from friends, family and all that gives me laughs and pleasure including my blogger buddies.  

Coincidentally, just as I thought I would resume writing here, and I had assured bloggers inquiring about my prolonged absence that I was not unwell, a simple ordinary (if there is such a thing) bacterial infection, as I've had before, became identified in my body.  Aha, I thought!  That’s what has been gradually causing me to experience interrupted sleep at night, feel tired, weakness, fatigue later in the day, and decreased motivation.   I had tended to attribute my gradual physically wearing down feelings to effects of aging.  But, wait, aren't I too young for that to be true -- aren't we all? 

Beginning my antibiotic treatment I suddenly inexplicably began experiencing all sorts of other symptoms including possible medication side effects, others indicative of possible viral infection elsewhere in my body, too.   So, interspersed between good days and nights and not-so-good days and nights, a couple occasions of wondering if I should call 911 for a ER trip, (but I didn't call), I began my odyssey with doctor visits, referrals to urgent care when my doctor was unexpectedly unavailable, both frustrating and a bit complicating, but also with some positive results. 

There have been the various routine tests, another round of antibiotics, another prescription, eventually addition of other over-the-counter meds., and a share of more "wait and see" that I had already been doing.   Admonishing my doctor that I did not want pain medication, he convinced me I should take those additional pills because they were to reduce inflammation.   Then there were the accounts from others of medical friends telling them that some mysterious illness was making the rounds causing local doctors some diagnostic frustration.  This didn't apply to my symptoms, I quickly concluded, but made for a lot of speculation by others passing along the latest medical gossip.  

I was reminded when years ago, before my brother's death, I was conversing with him on Hawaii's Big Island -- yes, his home in a small village was and is still about three miles from the currently spewing Pele' -- the glass said to be the Deity's hair, that red hot lava, rock and ash, emitting Kilauea volcano causing poisonous gasses, vog and more.  He assured me then, and it's still true as family staying there now tells me, they're generally not affected where they are, due to the trade winds.  

They do feel the shaking and his house did experience some effects from the earthquakes, but nothing serious.   Another family member's residence a short distance away has had no problems.  I still can't help wondering every time I become aware of more volcanic changes if their situation has altered. They are not in the housing development or other residential communities in the area being overrun by lava flow as pictured below.

Here's the link to a Sky News video report from within the past week as the volcano keeps erupting:  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ax_gEvD05xw&t=17s

Latest news reports when this is being written is that lava continues to flow threatening to overrun the remaining highway in the expanding videoed housing development area leaving no exit route for any residents who have not evacuated.

But my brother's and my discussion those years ago turned to our personal health matters.  Suddenly, he said, "Have we come to this, that we're talking about our health problems?"  I recall, also, my now-deceased mother once responded to my scolding as to why she hadn't told me about some symptom she was experiencing, "If I always told you about every little ache and pain I'm having you would soon tire of coming to talk with me."  I think about that now in reference to my own communication and yet, here I am writing about it.

In my current saga, essentially, once medical issues entered the picture, I began just plain trying to take care of survival basics.  These can be especially challenging to those of us choosing to spend our older years “living in place”, especially if we're on our own.   There has been little wrong with me except for what ails me that has had doctors and me unraveling that puzzle — not a life-threatening issue as we think of them, but more than a bit annoying and activity limiting. 

I expect many of you have been down this same path, probably involved with even more challenging issues than my own experience, but everything is relative, and we all know only too well it could be worse.  I'm on the home stretch now, I think.  

Have you been perturbed trying to figure out if something was wrong with you or erroneously thought you were just getting old, even prematurely so when you were younger?   

Part II next time.