Dear Local Twitter Dads, Today I saw your tweets expressing incredulity at the price of family food and entertainment. The punchline of those tweets, Am I having a stroke? hurt my feelings. Yes, I know it was just a joke. I’ve made that joke myself in the past. But damn, it sure hits different when you survived a stoke 22 days ago. Twitter Dads, I don’t actually know what it’s like to have a stroke. I think I slept through…
Dear Darling Ones, A long time ago I had an idea to write about all the different ways you can cry in a day. I was gonna keep track of my tears and then tell you about them. I don’t think I ever got around to it. If I did, keep that fact to yourself. I just had a stroke! I’m allowed to forget some things. If I did that post today, one of ways you can cry is “6…
Hi Darling Ones, I wear a watch now. It’s a fancy Apple Watch because my family is afraid I will fall and be unable to call for help. Every morning my first thought is, “Oh yeah, I had a stroke.” I almost forget during the night, but my shaky arm is a constant reminder. Brushing my hair takes some effort. When I finally get downstairs I text my family, so they know I woke up and made it downstairs alive….
Oh Darling Ones, Last night I found out a friend from college died of colon cancer. He wasn’t even fifty. While I haven’t seen Baltus since the 90s, I’ve thought about him every Valentine’s Day for the last twenty-eight years. The Baltus-Valentine story looms so large in my memory, I’m surprised it didn’t appear sooner or more often. Of course he appears often in the archives as one of the Cross Country Boys. And while I can’t say with 100%…
Hi Darling Ones, Everything continues to be awful and difficult here in the land of stroke recovery with the added bonus of COVID. Yup. One week after the stroke and five days after being released from the hospital, I got the COVID. Again. My new nurse practitioner winced when I told her this morning during a telehealth follow-up. “I’m so sorry,” she said, shaking her head. “You’re going through a lot of scary stuff.” Some of that stuff involves being…
Hi Darling Ones, It’s been a week since the stroke upended my life. I still hate it. If I ever get one of them wasting diseases ala Beth in Little Women, don’t expect gentle grace from me. I am angry, impatient, and resentful. I might appear stoic and accepting, but that’s only because I’m choosing to use the very last of my energy to reign in the hot river of bitterness that wants to escape. Appearances are deceiving, and I…
