It has been about 10 months since I have spent any time on this site. Why? Well, 2011 was that kind of a year. Nearly 10 months ago my mom passed away. We also bought a house, and my mother-in-law was so sick for a while we thought we would lose her also. Then I lost my job of 15 years. Let's see: a death and a serious illness in the family, buying a house and losing your job - aren't those four events high on the top ten list of stress causers in life?
But everything is relative. My mother was 81 years old and her quality of life had been poor for a few years. My mother-in-law recovered her strength and is doing well now. The house we bought is in Florida and we are now spending the winter in it far away from the ravages of New England weather. And as for my job - at least my wife is still working (for the same company!) so I am on her health insurance plan now. I also received a fairly generous severance package. Many people just get the heave-ho. So things could definitely be worse.
I am thinking about all this because of the New Year and our hopes that it will be better than 2011. Beyond the events that mark each year, it occurs to me that 2012 marks my 25th year with an ileostomy. Not only would I not be alive without that surgery, but if I look back any number of years and think about tragic or even disappointing events in my life, none of them involve my ostomy. Oh, there are the occasional partial blockages I have to wait out in spasms of pain, or the even less frequent messy accidents of varying degree, but those register low on what my former fellow employees used to call the HEF Meter (Head Explosion Factor).
Besides, it is 70 degrees here today and snowing back in Maine, and the first copy of my Kindle book The Little Dirt just sold last weekend. And I see that Amazon has improved their sales rankings reports so that I now know that someone in Nashville, Tennessee bought a paper copy of my ostomy novel, Caught Holding the Bag, right at the end of 2011. Signs and portents. Hello 2012.
But everything is relative. My mother was 81 years old and her quality of life had been poor for a few years. My mother-in-law recovered her strength and is doing well now. The house we bought is in Florida and we are now spending the winter in it far away from the ravages of New England weather. And as for my job - at least my wife is still working (for the same company!) so I am on her health insurance plan now. I also received a fairly generous severance package. Many people just get the heave-ho. So things could definitely be worse.
I am thinking about all this because of the New Year and our hopes that it will be better than 2011. Beyond the events that mark each year, it occurs to me that 2012 marks my 25th year with an ileostomy. Not only would I not be alive without that surgery, but if I look back any number of years and think about tragic or even disappointing events in my life, none of them involve my ostomy. Oh, there are the occasional partial blockages I have to wait out in spasms of pain, or the even less frequent messy accidents of varying degree, but those register low on what my former fellow employees used to call the HEF Meter (Head Explosion Factor).
Besides, it is 70 degrees here today and snowing back in Maine, and the first copy of my Kindle book The Little Dirt just sold last weekend. And I see that Amazon has improved their sales rankings reports so that I now know that someone in Nashville, Tennessee bought a paper copy of my ostomy novel, Caught Holding the Bag, right at the end of 2011. Signs and portents. Hello 2012.
