You, sir, have no idea what a ten is.

Health care providers use a scale of 1-10 to gauge people’s pain to assist with triaging.  The typical pain scale cheat sheet (in case you didn’t know what a five is) rates things between mild and severe with hints to help you determine…

gaining … wait a minute

My body and I are long-time nemeses.  Sometime in middle school/early high school I recognized had an unideal body type. On the upside I had long legs on a slightly below average height. On the downside I was short-waisted, small-boned, and heavily-endowed. Imagine popping Barbie legs onto…

The upside of your pancreas failing you:   Self-education

What I could tell you about the digestive process two years ago vs. What I could tell you about it now.  (In pictures)

My life in bikes

Growing up Single in the city Newlywed   Pets   Home ownership Child Children

An answer? Definitely a lot of questions….

Last night I jokingly lamented that the last two years’ health problems can be directly or indirectly attributed to having a child later in life with medical intervention. Directly, I required a hysterectomy and pelvic floor repair two years ago. Indirectly, in my lay-informed…

Might Makes Right

This morning Sandy raised his voice and expressed his frustration with Eliot and I as he was busy trying to herd the clan out the door. It was legitimate, but I realized that his ability and willingness to get vocally upset powers his influence. This is…

Birthdays

I recently turned 46.  As far as birthdays go, it was really pretty crappy.  I’m in the midst of a 13 week long pancreatic flare up, treatment isn’t going as planned, and the day before my birthday I got a conflicting recommendation from…

Wabi-sabi

My dog died two weeks ago.  It came upon us suddenly.  We had less than a month from taking her into the vet for weightloss and vomiting from when we let her go.  We had had her for about two years.  It was…

Empathy and Introversion

I empathize easily. This seems a coveted trait these days.  Ted Talks and Psychology Today articles abound on how to increase your empathetic skills.  Which would imply that empathy is a rare and precious thing, but I suspect many people empathize.  How else…

Addiction

Last night was a low for me. The pancreatic pain had me reaching for a codeine. I can see that this is how addictions begin. The pain wasn’t so bad that I was crying, but it was gnawing at me; something I could…