Thanks.
He’s better but I still think he’s not entirely well (it is very hard to tell with birds). I can, however, report that he is stuffed full of scrambled eggs…
As long as he’s still eating, drinking, and pooping I’m not going to panic. He’s been sick before with upper respiratory things. At least this time he’s not literally covered in bird snot.
The fundamentalist branch of my family has gone militantly anti-vax. Other family who’ve visited the group report hostility towards vaccines – to the point they have dramatically coughed on an immune-compromised visitor to prove it’s all a hoax and God protects those he cares about. They’ve also announced God is their vaccine and they have no need for “western medicine”.
Now one of them is terminal and the doctors* say he has a few months at most. This person was really dear to me in the past (before God got involved), and I want to visit him before it’s too late. I really don’t want to enter this group, and dread the uncomfortable questions about my involvement with their deity, vaccines, etc. The encounter could be unpleasant.
So my anxiety inducer is: I don’t know what to do, and time is running out. The inevitable funeral is an easy “no”, as their church and beliefs ensure a super-spreader event. But a quick visit around a few people is less risky, at least virally. I don’t have a clear path forward here.
*Yes I know – “western medicine.” I’m well aware of the contradictions here, and the futility of pointing them out.
Today is Friday. I had my anxiety last Saturday through yesterday, all stemming from an MRI on my left shoulder for possible rotator cuff tear. Saturday after the MRI I ate an entire pizza and 2 candy bars. No wonder I’m 50 pounds overweight. No tear, just mild frozen shoulder so bye bye anxious eating.
Not sure if it qualifies as anxiety, but letting the dog out into the yard first thing this rainy morning, only to have him get skunked and roll in the mud to try to get it off was a bright start to the day!
I have a cold. Not even a really bad one. In normal times, I wouldn’t even consider calling in sick to work based on how I feel today.
But it’s not normal times, so I’m leaving in about a half hour for a COVID test to make sure I’m not going to accidentally kill any of my friends and co-workers. Or any other random person, for that matter.
I’m vaccinated, I wear a mask, and I haven’t, to my knowledge, been around anyone who had COVID. And my symptoms are very much consistent with a cold rather than COVID. But there’s still that little part of me that can’t not imagine finding out two weeks from now that I had COVID the whole time and had been spreading it around because I was too arrogant to get a test. So off I go.
I hate how COVID has made minor colds so fraught. Not to mention the breath-holding everyone does when someone they’ve encountered tests positive, even when no one has any symptoms.
Staff meeting this coming Monday with a boss who tends to decide policy arbitrarily. We may lose a couple of people soon due to vax mandates (they refuse to get the shot) and we’re already short-staffed. I basically guess that at the meeting I’ll be given a lot of ridiculous instruction that’ll change how I’m supposed to do my job, all in the name of weeding out even more staff because of my reporting. I wake up an hour before my alarm every day tossing and flailing worrying about the office…had to go home last week with a panic attack for the first time in about fifteen years.
Yeah. Tho I’ve largely limited my social contact, I can recall 2 instances where I encountered someone who was hacking. When I asked if they were all right, they said, “It’s just a cold.”
Fine. But either be able to tell me that you had a negative covid test, or stay home until you are not hacking and snorting.
Babies being sick is always stressful but it’s even more stressful these days. I hope he makes a full recovery soon!
Ack, sick pets. It’s so sad to see them unwell and not be able to know fully what is wrong. Seems like you’re doing the best you can!
I’m so sorry about your relative. I hope you can find peace, however this plays out.
I’ve been anxious for about 3 months straight, since I got on the ballot for my re-election to city council. At first me and the other two incumbents thought no one would run against us, but two other folks popped on at the last minute. No problem, we’re doing a good job…but these two candidates are being backed by a woman who very clearly doesn’t like us (we took her seat 4 years ago) and is very very good at campaigning. Granted, these two candidates themselves have done little to no work and no one seems to know who they are but the backer lady has been doing her best to get their names out there.
My problem is that they are doing so little that I am scared to death that some shoe will drop this weekend, the backer lady will do some sort of “Hillary’s Emails” bullshit to cast doubt on us incumbents, and I will wake up Monday with the whole city against me.
I absolutely cannot wait til Wednesday. If I die of anxiety before then, it was nice knowing you all.
I’ve been working at home, remotely, since March of last year. My computer (an older MacBook) has been creaking along, but doing all right, until this morning, when corporate IT pushed through some software updates. That included an update of Microsoft Office, but the new version of Outlook doesn’t want to play nice with my older Mac iOS.
After an hour on the phone with IT, the only solution is “use the web version of Outlook until we can figure this out, but it may mean you need to send us your laptop for a few days.” Ugggggggh.
(Yes, I have backed up all of my files. 
)
It’s been nice knowing you too.
From the former wife of someone elected to the school board every 4 years for 20 years-it’s nerve-racking, I agree.
My 18 1/2 year old Aussie has an ulcerated pressure sore on her elbow that I just discovered today. She won’t use a theraputic foam bed because she is afraid she can’t get out of it, her rear end is so weak. She gets so panicked if I try to clean up her sore that she hyperventilates and thrashes. Night before last she shat all over the rug and then lay in it all night because she could not get up. Last night she woke me up at three a.m. retching and hacking.
Last spring my 14 year old dog died and now my 1000 year old is going downhill fast. Meanwhile my husband and some friends are whaling on getting a roof on the stable before the weather gets any worse, we might even get snow next week. Oh yeah, my stable burnt to the ground in a lightning strike end of July.
My pony came down with anaplasmosis and now I have to syringe a mixture of applesauce and doxycycline down her throat morning and evening, we are on Day 10 out of the 14 day course. And at least one and often two men are living upstairs (they came from afar to help us) while working on the stable and I have to feed them hot home cooked meals at twice a day, me who thinks of a bowl of shredded wheat and milk as “dinner”. And cookies for snacks.
I can’t express how tired and anxious I am all the time.
Oh, and @elfkin477, about that wind? That’s how I am about fire now. After standing there watching my beautiful stable burn to the ground all night.
Hugs @Ulfreida. I’m sorry for all your troubles. Keep taking baby steps until you find you can take bigger ones.
Ulfreida, you poor thing! I am so sorry for all your troubles. I sure hope things turn more in your favor soon.
If you’re anywhere near Sacramento, I’d be happy to bring you a casserole or two.
You won’t get a do-over so though you may regret it if you do visit, dealing with the militants is a chance I would take for a last visit to someone I cared about. With a lot of mental prep, infinite bitching and moaning, hard focus on my objective, and promise of a big reward for myself on the other side…
I got a voicemail from Covered California (i.e. Obamacare) that there’s a problem with my account.
Don’t call the number they left for you, but look up who to call on the interwebs because scams.
Today’s anxiety inducer, the rising cost of every-doggone-thing and the fact that my contract is up at the end of year. I expect it to be extended for a couple of months but don’t know what the future holds beyond that. I’m now 61, and can’t afford to not work, and also can’t afford to take a low-paying job due to medical expenses. This stress rolls around so frequently, you’d think it wouldn’t bother me any more but ageism is real and while I had no problem finding my next consulting job 20 years ago, it’s definitely harder now.
My wife suffers from bipolar disorder. She has held up better than expected over the last 18 months but recently has hit an all time low. She has handled the pressures of a hysterectomy, the start of Covid, the initial lock downs, me working from home, my daughter having months of no school and then a year of alternating between in school and at home learning every second day better than I expected.
In the last 8 or so months, piled on top of that has been finding out her mom has stage 4 lymphoma, our province stupidly lifting restrictions and having our case count skyrocket which now has us under a lockdown where we cannot socialize outside our household, the union representing public workers has gone on strike so my daughter is once again doing full time at home learning.
All of this has pushed her over the edge where she is a giant anger monster who does nothing but try to block out the world using booze or weed (legal here). She will be out of control for a week, then some of the pressure comes off and she is in a position where she is barely holding on, but is holding on. Then another stressor comes along and starts the cycle over again.
She is regularly seeing a psychologist. They are adjusting her meds to find a better balance. I just never know if I’m going to wake up to my caring and compassionate wife or to the horrible rage machine for whom nothing is ever right, there is no hope, why bother, get me a drink
First, Happy Doperversary! I’m glad you’re here!
Mostly though, I admire your hanging in with your wife and her bipolar diagnosis~it is a beastly disease when it decides to go off the rails. Hope the right meds are found quickly and you all get relief.
{{{{{{ from a Dope stranger who had been there, done that }}}}}}