Welcome And The Big Question

Welcome to the Only Child Diaries Podcast. I'm your host, Tracy Wallace. Have you ever felt like you didn't receive the how-to brochure on life? That you didn't get enough guidance about major life issues? So did I. You don't have to be an only child to feel this way. In my podcast, we'll explore some of the best ways to better navigate adulthood. By doing so, welcome everyone to the Only Child Diaries Podcast. Today, I want to keep you updated and remind you to take care of your health. Now, I say it uh whenever I have the opportunity without putting too much guilt onto people, but the last six to eight months have, well, my time really hasn't been my own. I helped my friend with the passing of her mother, helped with things with the house, and helped with the memorial and all that. And that really took three months of my all my extra time up and above work. And then right after that, things happened with Bill and his herniated discs in his back. And that was October. So that was October, November, December, January, February, March. So really uh then it was five months. So uh so yeah, the past eight months or so, my time has not been my own. I've learned to carve things out for myself, and I've learned to be more efficient with all the things that I have to get into place. Because, you know, I still have to take care of the dog, I still have to take care of the cat, I still have to take care of the house, and I do have a job, but I've managed, I've I've managed better. I wouldn't say that all my time is back and I just have a leisurely life because I don't. Uh I don't, but I I've managed. And and now Bill just got his nerve block this week in the past couple days, and he feels better. I have to say, I'm very proud of him because he really has been dedicating himself to his PT visits and keeping up with the exercises on the days when he doesn't go to PT. Now, if you've ever done physical therapy or PT, because I say PT because it's easier, less syllables. If you've ever done PT yourself, you know that it's challenging to keep up with those exercises on a daily basis, right? It's too easy to just sit around if you don't have somebody prodding you, reminding you, pushing you. And and I get tired of pushing him with things, but he has been really motivated. He wants to get better, he wants to get stronger, so he has been doing really well with that. And it shows he's been able to move away from the walker and use his cane more, uh, his balance is better, and and I think a lot of that has to do with his level of strength. I can see a real difference in just his physical physicality, and so that's great news. I'm I'm thrilled, and again, I'm very proud of him. But there's a lot of my own stuff and my medical stuff that I've you know been thinking about, and I've said to myself, I've got to make those appointments, I've got to make those appointments to the point where I I thought, well, okay, if I make the appointment now, or if I call to make the appointment, when am I gonna go? And right now I'm 11 weeks away from my event, my fundraising event, which is a big work project, and it takes up a lot of my time and thought and energy, and I'm working more. I usually work about 30 hours a week. I'm working more and I'm thinking about it more, and I have more meetings and I'm gonna have to go out in the field more, and I know it's not gonna get any easier in the next 11 weeks. So anyway, uh my physical was due or a little past due. The only reason that they keep me in check is because they will stop prescribing the prescriptions that I have. The one prescription really that I need on a daily basis is this one for um migraine prevention. It's Topamax, it's the generic for Topamax, and it's to it's really a seizure medication, but it has a secondary use that helps prevent migraines. And I know that when I've gone off of it, I get a migraine. Like if I forget to take it, or you know, God forbid, if I've run out, then the next day I get a headache. Don't want to go there. So that keeps me um, so that keeps me focused. Now, they're usually pretty good about timing. Like if I go in for a four o'clock appointment, they see me pretty much on time, and it's not a lot of waiting and all that stuff, but the thing is, is that it's down at Cedar Sinai and there's a lot of traffic. There's not really a direct freeway route, so you have to take streets, and it's about 15 miles one way. Well, Bill's nerve block was scheduled, and he was going to be down there for about three, two to two and a half, two to three hours. And I thought at the last minute, I thought, wait, I could drop him off, take him up there, drop him off, whatever. It's not the same building, but it's the same, it's like a half mile away. And then maybe I could get my physical scheduled so I could run over, run over, you know, it's run over and being the operative term, and get my physical done and then go back and get him. And I could, you know, it would be like a twofer. So I wouldn't have to drive down there twice. The thing is, when you have the physical, right, they want to have your labs done. Around here, it's so much easier if you get an appointment to get your labs done. So that usually takes some time, four or five days. Anyway, I got, and it's fasting, so I got an appointment the day before, and I know that they can turn the labs around in 24 hours. Got that done on Wednesday morning, got the labs for the appointment, dropped him off, you know, went into the area with him, helped him a little bit, and I said, Okay, gotta go. And I kept asking him, you know, do you mind? Are you gonna mind me leaving? And, you know, because sometimes he he feels like he needs support, which I understand, but he said no, they had a great staff, they took him in, they kept sending me alerts, but I wasn't able to look at my phone. He got the nerve block, then he goes into this recovery time. He didn't have any kind of um anesthesia or anything, but they just want to make sure he's okay. And then I got back and he was done. And so I felt like at least I got that done, right? I got, I was, I'm on my way to finishing, well, I'm not even close to finishing my list, but at least I got that done. I was able to look at my labs, and I've you know, I've really tried to be good with my eating. I've tried to be better. Let me press. Okay, I've tried to be better with my eating. That's a challenge. I haven't had a lot of sugar, I haven't had any chocolate, maybe two or three times. I mean, as I was telling my doctor, chocolate used to be a food group for me. Yes, a food group. It was you know, it was fruits and vegetables, meat, dairy, chocolate. It was something I had every day. When I had COVID, I just didn't feel like eating chocolate anymore. So I didn't want to get back into it because I know it's a drug and I know if I start eating it, I'm gonna start craving it. And that's not a place where I really want to go. I love chocolate. It's not a place I want to go. Anyway, so but you know, I just now that I'm and I'm heading towards another birthday uh in the next week, I it's so hard to lose weight. It's so hard. Glacially slow, is what my doctor said. Frustrating. So I wish I could just instantly lose 50 pounds, but that just it's not gonna happen. Anyway, so got my labs done. I I wanted to get a sneak peek, if you will. So I was able to look online before my appointment. And you know, they start off with the cholesterol uh readings first. So I open up the I open up the readings and it's red, red, red, red, red, which are all the ones that are out of range, and then it's all green. So I'm not in terrible shape, but my cholesterol is is all out of range. So that's I don't eat a lot of fried foods. I don't eat a lot of dairy. I don't eat a lot of like like whole milk or you know, fatty meats, or uh it's just so frustrating. But anyway, she she didn't put me on cholesterol meds yet. I I guess I'm happy about that. I guess that's the way it should go. I guess I should trust her. But that's where we're at. And then um I talked to her about vaccines. I've gotten the flu shot, I've gotten the COVID shot, I've gotten a shingles shot, which the shingles vaccine was not my friend, but I didn't want to get shingles again. It's not good. So she said that I should get the RSV shot and the pneumococcal or the Prevdar, the pneumonia shot, whatever it's called, whatever you want to call it. So I went today to pick up our first prescriptions and I asked if they had the I asked, I asked which one of those had the least amount of side effects because I haven't had either one, and I don't want to be, I don't want to suffer side effects because I don't want to have any downtime. And so they told me that the that the pneumococcal shot really didn't have any side effects. Before she well, before she gave me the shot, she said that you know, I might get a rash on my arm, it might really itch. I should use ice. I can live with that. I can I can deal with that. I just don't want to be feel sick. I could even deal with, you know, a sore arm. I could deal with that, but I don't want to feel sick or tired or have the the chills. The first shingle shot was horrible for me. I woke up that night and I couldn't stop shaking. I was I felt so cold. I covered myself in like four blankets and I was just I couldn't stop shaking for hours. It was miserable. But the second one was fine, so go figure. But my husband and I are both very pro-vaccine, and I don't think I'll ever need to have another shingle shot. So there you go. But anyway, now I've gotten the pneumococcal shot. Yay! So I feel like I feel like I'm really doing good for myself now. I don't like shots, they freak me out, but I was very brave. I went by myself. I was very brave. So, and then Monday I'm gonna go and get my teeth cleaned. And I still have, oh gosh, I mean, the list never ends. I have I have to get my mammogram. I'm overdue for that. And I need to go and see my gynecologist. But I did get a letter or an email from them that they changed offices and they also don't take my insurance anymore. And, you know, that I'm that's not gonna be a problem for me because I have such a hard time finding doctors that I like and doctors that I trust, that I'm willing to be a cash patient for him because I I just I don't want to have to look for I don't want to have to break another doctor in. It's too much work at this point. And he's one of my neighbors. Yes, my gynecologist comes on Halloween night with his kids trick-or-treating. Is that awkward or what? But I don't care. At this point, I don't really care. It's not like it's a at first it was a little queasy, but yes, I'm the one that you did the pap smear on. Yeah, no, I don't, it's I don't care, it's fine. Anyway, I digress, but you have to be your own advocate. You have to face up to the fact that you know your body is gonna have some issues, and your body has to have regular maintenance, and that is only going to benefit you down the road, whether or not you have a problem or not. You just have to get things checked out, and there's certain things like your blood pressure, right? Your labs, things that may not show up, or things that you may not feel, it's important to get the labs. That's why it's important to get your blood pressure checked occasionally because something might be blooming. You just want to check it out, just get checked out, you know. Um, preventative medicine. It's very important. On the other side of uh my life is my job, and I'm trying to work on this event, and I'm really working hard to find sponsors for this fundraising dinner that we're having. It's very challenging. I've worked all year to try to cultivate the people that supported the event last year, and you know, I had some challenges with that, just trying to reach out to people trying to get support, you know, internally. But I know I did get some traction on some of that, but there's other economic factors that are affecting our regular sponsors, and I'm doing at least as much work, if not more, for less dollars. And it's very frustrating, very frustrating. So uh I just keep plugging away, I just keep plugging away and I keep trying to um look at how can I approach it in a different way, in a different route. How can I sell it, if you will, uh in a different way? How can I approach people and how can I look at it from their point of view? I mean, fundraising and giving people or asking people to support your cause, a lot of people feel queasy about that, right? They don't they don't want to ask for money. And really asking people to support your cause is asking giving them is giving them an opportunity to feel good about what they do and giving them an opportunity to feel like they made a contribution to helping that particular need or or problem, right? So I don't look at it uh like it's uh a negative thing. Um but I do look at it like I'm trying to sell an idea, and I've I've sold things most of my life. I was in retail, and then I had my store, and then I went into fundraising, and it's all it's all selling an idea, a case, a problem. So I just my brain feels like it's constantly working, and sometimes it gets tired, but uh yeah, and uh oh, and my doctor did say that as we get older, and that's just not something that you want to hear, right? Especially when you're getting close to a birthday again, you know, as we get older, like, how did I get here? I still feel like I'm in my 20s. I mean, mentally, I feel like I'm in my 20s or my 30s, but physically, physically, it's a different story. But uh, she said, as we get older, our muscle mass, you know, we lose muscle mass, and we want to keep working on that because that helps with our metabolism and it helps with our strength. And so it's like, yeah, you have to rethink how you're doing that. I mean, I've been walking every day, taking the dog out, and that's really helped me a lot of, you know, a lot of aspects of it, but it's not building muscle. So I have to add something in for that. Yay! Oh, yay, hoo-hoo. Aging. It sucks. It's not for it's not for the weak-minded. Just yeah. So, next week, well, you and I are gonna tackle another topic together. I hope you'll join me. If you like this episode, please follow the Only Child Diaries Podcast on Apple Podcasts or other platforms you might listen on. And consider rating Only Child Diaries and writing a review. It helps others to find us. Please share it with a friend you think might like it as well. Visit my Instagram page, Only Child Diaries, or Facebook, Only Child Diaries Podcast. Thanks for listening. I'm Tracy Wanders, and these are the Only Child Diaries.