Category Archives: illness

Gone too soon – RIP, Robin Williams

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Tributes to the great Robin Williams are all over the Interwebs and all over the world. Erika Diamond reprinted a post I contributed a few years ago. Anything I add will echo something said by others – and perhaps that’s one of the reasons so many are speaking up.

From a college friend – Celebrity deaths don’t generally make me cry. I just sobbed over the loss of Robin Williams.

From a teacher and techie friend – I have to turn off Facebook and all social media tonight. This repeating story of Robin Williams being so alone and desolate is absolutely killing me.

In one of my favorite rolls, Mrs. Doubtfire

In one of my favorite rolls, Mrs. Doubtfire

Iphigenia Doubtfire. How much of this was scripted and how much improvised? We may never know. Robin Williams in character within a character – both characters lovable and delightful people.

Robin Williams madness

 

That spark of “madness” – creativity, excitement, humor, brilliance. When I think of Robin Williams and his collective works – I haven’t even seen them all! – I keep coming back to brilliance. 

But within that brilliant man was a tortured soul. Depression, an illness made worse by addiction. Yes, I said illness. Depression is an illness that causes great pain. When people experience clinical depression, they are not sad or weak or wimpy. They truly cannot function because of their pain. Recovery can be slow, and it can require medications and therapy and more.

Robin’s legacy includes the manner of his death, but I hope his life is what we remember most. He was a very unique, strong and talented man; a diagnosis of mental illness doesn’t change that.

Rest in peace, Robin Williams. May you finally find the peace you were seeking. You made the world a better place.

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Holy Toledo! Don’t Drink the Water!

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The big city of Toledo had a disaster of epic proportions recently. The drinking water supply was contaminated with microcystins, a nasty toxin produced by cyanobacteria. Folks with an apocalyptic outlook may be shouting, “Look out! The end of the world is near! The sky is falling! This new bacteria will take over the world!”

Please set aside my sarcasm for a moment. Cyanobacteria is a major issue and a potential problem anywhere there is a large amount of warm, still water. It’s not pollution, per se, but it is dangerous. It’s also not new. As soon as I heard cyanobacteria referred to as “blue-green algae” I flashed back to college and Environmental Science 101. Way back then, I learned that blue-green algae was an invasive species, dangerous because it would take over the ecosystem and force out the native algae and small water animals that provide food for the bigger fish on the food chain. The same fish will not eat blue-green algae because, well, it tastes bad. Even the invasive zebra mussel turns up its nose (figuratively) at blue-green algae, eating other species and leaving more opportunities for the microcystin-producing cyanobacteria.

So, professor, are you proud of me for remembering that? Pat yourself on the back. I also learned quite a bit about water treatment. In my neck of the woods in the Great Lakes region, just like Toledo, Ohio, our local treatment plants have to go to extra lengths to clean and process the water before it goes back into the watershed. The water that enters my home is also treated thoroughly to keep it safe for cooking and drinking.

Blue-green algae and its bacteria do not get filtered out or chemically neutralized, even in the three major stages of water treatment required in the Great Lakes. In fact, boiling will not get rid of it, either. Boiling water makes the toxin stronger.

So here’s the trouble, people. This algae thrives in warm, still water. Climate change has warmed the Great Lakes and made a perfect storm, er, environment for this kind of disaster to happen again and again.

My fair city gets its water not from a Great Lake, but another nearby large body of water. A microcystin water disaster could happen here. Looking ahead, we residents need to consider:

  • How can we as individuals prepare for a disaster like this?
  • Is my filter pitcher of any use against a bacteria like microsystin?
  • What kind of contribution can I make, one that others can also achieve, to slow down the process of climate change?
  • When will “Think Globally, Act Locally” become more than a slogan and have a serious effect on the way we see our water supply?

Readers, grab a glass of cool ice water and chime in.

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Portion Sizes

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Readers, I know that Blog Basics state “Nobody cares what you had for lunch!” but I’m going to chance it. Due to a rude awakening (99% blocked carotid artery, et. al.), I’m getting serious about keeping my blood pressure down. Task one: monitor the aforementioned blood pressure.

Petunia bought me a home monitor, and I’ve been faithfully using it since I came home from the hospital. Now that I have the numbers and I’ve learned a little about what those numbers mean, I want to move to the next step: do something to keep those numbers low.

In the meantime, I’m paying attention to my eating habits. By using the USDA’s DASH diet, I hope to keep the BP numbers below that mystical threshold. So far, I’m meeting my goal of eating 6-8 servings of fruits and vegetables a day. The tough part: what makes a serving? Well, I did find some guidelines. I think I can handle this.

Fruits and veggies will be easy for the foreseeable future: it’s Farmers’ Market season! My favorite market, the one that spans the entire downtown of my small city, is starting soon. Time to get out the cloth bags! Vegetable vendors, here I come!

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Going Greener

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I put No Impact Man on my wish list on Paperback Swap dot com quite a while ago. It came today, just in time for – no. Not just in time for anything, really. I’m eager to read it.

So far, I’m snickering as his dilemmas because I’ve face so many of the same. Paper or plastic? Today’s version is more likely to be “Is plastic okay?” because plastic bags cost the store so much less than paper. Dear darling Chuck gets paper bags when he shops. I bring my own. I don’t bug him about it – much.

Elevator vs. stairs: I don’t have to deal with nine floors like No Impact Man does. I deal with two flights in an old building, though, and that on top of major abdominal surgery followed by more medical issues that made walking difficult. Hence, the elevator, for a little longer.

Tissue vs. handkerchief: I still stick with tissue. It’s not the environmental choice, but it’s a more hygienic choice. Give me a little leeway there, green folks, because I still harbor the germ phobia from teaching in a classroom full of coughing and sneezing kids for many years.

And I’ve only just begun to read!

Meanwhile, I will keep on gardening for 3 minutes a day, and with the generosity of others, I might get the garden in. Soon. Maybe. Shh: don’t tell the neighborhood bunnies, but I’m planting lettuce. Soon.

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Signs that the O.K. Chorale has been — well —

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I think I’ll address this in the form of a top ten list. Here you go, readers:

The Top Ten Ways Daisy can Tell She Hasn’t Blogged Recently. 

10. Several friends have changed their Facebook profile pictures and I didn’t notice.

9. Plurk updates have gone down in quantity.

8. The laptop didn’t need charging.

7. I’ve known the final Jeopardy answer twice and haven’t bragged about it here.

6. I’ve had more posts on my employer’s national blog than on my own.

5. The latest ER visit had me saying “I hope the doctor on duty isn’t the crabby one.”

4. I’ve spent more time with my new blood pressure monitor than with my laptop.

3. Amigo asked if I’d blogged the latest captioning errors on MeTV’s series “Emergency.”

2. My coworker’s parents, regular readers, asked her to check on me.

1. I started getting emails saying “You haven’t blogged. Are you okay?”

In conclusion, my friends and family, it’s been rough around the O.K. Chorale. I was started to feel stronger and walk a little less lopsidedly (that is SO a word), and my back started giving me spasms so agonizing that we went to the E.R. (see #5). I’m healing, but I’m low on energy. I’m back at work full time, but not doing much else (see #6). I come home, throw my herbal heating pack in the microwave, and sit down to watch Emergency with Amigo (see #3). Supper has been a throw-it-in-the oven affair. Thank goodness for the nearby meat market that sells ready to eat lasagna, among other things!

I’m not kidding when I say I’ve rearranged the desk in my “office” to make room for a new tech toy (see #4). Petunia checked the reviews and made a few calls and found us a portable electronic blood pressure monitor. So far, the results are good – BP results, that is.

For now, I’m going to adjourn and watch Final Jeopardy. The category tonight is The Academy Awards. I don’t stand a chance.

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Cooking the Old Fashioned, Newfangled Way

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I subscribe to the feed for a cooking blog called How to Cook Like Your Grandmother. The trend in kitchens has been swinging in this direction for a while, away from mixes and pre-made frozen foods, back into cooking from scratch. Once in a while, when I’m just not capable of cooking (for whatever reason) we’ll go back to the old frozen pizza. Most of the time, though, we make the effort to put something good on the table and into our bodies.

Chuck was exhausted from a weekend of travel. Amigo was happy and tired from a weekend of travel. I was a little better off, but not much, just ten days out from a very scary and exhausting hospital experience. I’m still scrubbing off the bandage marks.

To put supper on the table, Chuck went out to do a whirlwind grocery shopping trip. Bunny food, a few other necessities, and a fully cooked rotisserie chicken were on his list. Meanwhile, back at the O.K. Chorale, I grabbed some frozen corn (frozen last summer when it was fresh), a small container of frozen red and green peppers, and tossed all of this into the steamer to cook. Somehow, even as wrecked as we felt, we put a decent meal on for supper.

Afterwards, I took a few minutes to be inspired by How to Cook Like Your Grandmother, a post still sitting in my inbox. . Tired, but not willing to quit quite yet, I took the bones from the chicken, the veggie water from the steamer, and a couple pieces of onion and I made a chicken broth. I had to be in the kitchen making lunch for tomorrow, so I rationalized I might as well get a broth simmering while I worked.

It was worth it. The broth looked thick and tasty, I got my lunch packed and a couple of options onto Amigo’s shelf in the refrigerator, and then diced up a little lettuce and tomato for the next night’s tacos.

When I’m tired and running almost on empty, sometimes I make the best use of my time. When everything is said and done, I can relax and go to bed knowing I’ve put in a good effort to feed the family and we didn’t even need to resort to frozen pizza – yet.

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Gardening in Three Minutes a Day

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I’m still following the “Three Minutes a Day” philosophy in getting the garden ready to go – er, ready to grow. Three minutes are often all I can spare these days. Three minutes of time or three minutes of energy or three minutes of sunshine – until the weekend, that is. So I wonder. Does worry count? Thought? Decision making? Dilemma solving?

Dilemma Number One: weak, wimpy seedlings. I decided to try Miracle Grow potting soil this year, and the seedling came up faster. I’m not so sure that’s a good thing, though. Those tomatoes and peppers of any height (relatively speaking, of course) have weak, white, spindly stems. These plants need a lot of sun and a lot of fresh air. They’re too weak to stand up right now. What to do, what to do?

Dilemma Number Two: straw bale prep. I need to review the research, buy the necessary fertilizer, and set up my calendar for prepping the straw bales. Where is the best place to buy fertilizer?

Dilemma Number Three: I plan to move the mini-greenhouse shelves to the deck later this week. What shall I do with the grow light that’s hanging on the shelves now?

Dilemma Number Four: The mini greenhouse shelves are not big enough to hold all the seedlings. Which should go outside first: the weaker or the stronger?

Today’s three minutes happened twice. One: I put the seedlings outside to soak in some real sun and to toughen up in the light breeze. Two: I water the seedlings.

And on we go. So much to do, so little strength – I’m as weak as some of the seedlings. When they’re falling over instead of waving in the wind, I’m getting a little bit done and then sitting down to rest.

Somehow, no matter what the dilemma, the plots seem to take shape.

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Believing in a Future

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Planting a garden means believing in a future.

Didn’t I post a quote like that in the recent past? I’ll search the archives. When I ran a quick search for “garden future quotes” I found everything but this one, so I’m unable to source it quite yet.

Meanwhile, back at the O.K. Chorale, I am sitting still and resting, stretching my legs as much as I can tolerate, and keeping calm. Mostly.

The big bunny still takes her responsibilities seriously in the role of service animal. I took a half day at work, stayed home for the morning, and even though I’d gotten up to feed her at the normal time, she came in a little later and made sure I was up. First she thumped, loudly, and then she scrabbled and scratched the blankets hanging down from the bed. I gave in and got up, and then she sat watching closely while I checked my blood pressure — so closely that I almost expected her to stick a paw in the cuff and check her own.

I’m discouraged from anything resembling physical effort. Bending, lifting, twisting, and straining are all on the “no-no” lists. That means digging in the dirt, spreading topsoil, carrying pots of seedlings out to the deck, or wrestling with a rain barrel are all outlawed. For now, that makes sense. I am stiff and sore, and I tire easily. I don’t know how long the remnants of last week’s hematoma (look it up, and trust me, it hurt) will get in my way.

On the bright side (there’s a little resilient thinking) Mother Nature has delivered rain for most of this week. The weather hasn’t encouraged garden work, so I miss it a little less. But as soon as the sun peeks out from behind the clouds, I’m going to want to garden.

Gardening has always been an ingredient in my healing, a strong part of any recovery. Taking the time to start seeds indoors kept me looking forward after my hysterectomy. Now it’s May, and by the end of this month I hope to have my plants in the dirt.

That’s where the faith in the future really comes in. When it’s time to plant, and I’m looking around and envisioning the harvest, my belief in the future is at its strongest.

 

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Resilience

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The term resilience came up in one of Erica Diamond’s posts on her blog, Women on the Fence. A guest blogger talked about her cancers – two bouts with two different cancers – and the strengths she discovered while fighting for her life.

The CEO of the company that oversees my teaching job is showing her resilience against cancer – also for the second time.

The first time I heard about resilience was in a training for teachers. We were learning about families with drug and alcohol problems, how to recognize the problems, and how to help the children get the help they needed. Our training showed that resilience comes in many forms and it can be developed and strengthened.

Resilience is a strength, the strength to hold on and survive. It’s more than recovering from influenza, although influenza can knock even the strongest person off her feet for a while. It’s more than getting through that last class for the advanced degree, although that certainly takes strength and endurance.

People who are resilient are not the ones who win all the time. Those folks on the top have strengths, too, but they haven’t been tested. Those who show resilience get tested and come up and out of the test stronger than before. And somehow, resilient people keep a sense of humor.

What doesn’t kill me may make me stronger, but even more than that, every time I find humor in a difficult situation, I win a small battle.

Readers, how do you show resilience? Where do you find strength when the going gets tough?

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Comfort Food away from home

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When I came home from the hospital in January, Amigo asked me, “How was the hospital food?” I told him I’d been pleasantly surprised at the decent food choices and quality.

This time, I wasn’t expecting to be in the hospital. I certainly hadn’t expected to be laid out, on flat bed rest (no more than 30% raised at the head), and my right leg immobilized straight ahead. I needed comfort – and the hospital menu had some standard comfort foods.

Oatmeal. I had oatmeal for breakfast with a fresh fruit cup of diced cantaloupe and grapes. I managed to eat the fruit cup, but I needed to be fed (spoon fed!) the oatmeal and the cranberry juice given with a straw. All in all, it was still comfort food.

I was sitting up by lunch, so I had soup and salad. Chicken noodle soup, in fact, satisfied my comfort food craving perfectly. The salad was spinach with hard boiled eggs, bacon bits and a citrus dressing. This salad was tasty enough that I thought about making it myself when the spinach is ripe in June.

I’ll take that as a collection of very good signs. I was hungry, I fed myself. I enjoyed the meal. I thought ahead, ahead to going home, and ahead to the future.

Gardening, I’m told, means believing in a future, and I was looking to the future, That’s a comfort in more ways than one.

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