Not my best week ever

This week I had a case of the "I don't feel like running", a sick husband and some pretty bad news (that I am still quite confused about!).

Luckily I know this is just a phase and I am already over my "I don't feel like running" and to illustrate this had a nice 4 mile run at lunch and just partook in the Fleet Feet Gaithersburg Fun Run this evening.

My husband continues to hack up a lung and spew various gooey liquids out a variety of orefices (glad he is old enough/mature enough/coherent enough to deal with these all by himself...well except for the errant tissues, yuck! But Gilligan our dog is pretty adept and happy to eat tissues, paper towels, etc. with or without added nasty treats;-)

Finally, my bad/confusing news has to do with my mom. She had a stroke over 2 years ago and seems not to have recovered fully, but is recovered enough to live on her own. Well, yesterday I got a call at work that she was in a car accident (drove off the road into a culvert) and may have wrecked her car. The other part of the story was that she was in the hospital for 1 (or 2) nights. I told you there was confusion in this last bit of bad news. My moms relatives who live in Texas (my mothers brother and sister in law) were not aware of this accident nor was my sister. I am unclear why no one was aware of this except perhaps it is the HIPAA rules (privacy laws that have gone amok) were being over-enforced. Since my mom's stroke, she has a necklace that is supposed to clearly indicate my sister or I get called immediately in a medical situation. Guess this didn't work according to plan!

Well, other then alot of confusion about what happened and how she will manage while her truck is either repaired or replaced, my impression from my Aunt who is in Texas is that my mom is okay. I am worried because she was recently put on EVISTA for osteoporosis, but it is contraindicated for people who have had strokes (another words people who have had strokes should NOT use it!). During the call I had with my mom yesterday and a phone message she left on Monday, her voice was slurred and she talked REALLY slowly. So now I am worried that perhaps she had another stroke. Of course this whole incident is transpiring 1,500 miles away; with at this point, only second hand reports being provided.

I guess one of the reasons this year I have tried to hang out with my family (my sister at Disney, my dad at Phoenix and my mom at Texas 2 weeks ago) is that I know none of us are invinsible. And it is better to hang out now while we are healthy rather then regretting it in the future. In fact my icky week continues with an appointment for a radiography of my thyroid, which has given me problems for about 15 years (when it stopped working abruptly, stupid thyroid). Apparently during my routine annual exam my Dr. is a bit concerned because it may be swollen. Hopefully my neck was swollen because it was inflamed from hooting, hollaring and cheering during Rocky Raccoon (oh yeah, and my all nighter) not because aforementioned thyroid, that is not really a team player anyway, (because it quit) is having other troubles.

Oh well, on a positive note, when I saw my dermatologist (the same day as my annual exam), he did not exactly yell at me (even though I was still a bit pink from Rocky Raccoon 50) and he found no concerning lumps, bumps or lesions (which if you look at my face, you can see a scar above my eye of a 2003 battle: skin cancer vs. Tammy in which I totally won! Okay, won is a bit excessive, but with my dermatologist it is no longer there; so I did kind of win, right?).

Be safe out there.