Tuesday, January 31, 2023

Raw hands, stomach, and a little Wammawink

Wammawink from Centaurworld. 

Why have I been awake since 2 am? Why do I nearly always wake between 2 and 3 in the damn morning? To pee, usually. It's obnoxious, especially since we are a one bathroom house and said bathroom is downstairs. So then I ask myself, is it worth it to get up and go down, do the business, and come back up? Because you can bet I will be wide awake by the time I get back up here. Well, despite telling myself that, no, it isn't worth it this morning, my bladder thought otherwise and wouldn't let me go back to sleep. Of course that isn't the only reason, I'm having a fibro flare as well and since I sprained the MCL in my right knee that's be just lovely. There's yet another reason but I will get to that in a few. Such fun! But moving on.

A friend of mine had a birthday recently. He loves Wammawink from Centaurworld- a crack show if I ever saw one and also what my wife says her brain is like. I do enjoy the show and like several of the songs. In fact, there's one that just about makes me cry every time I hear it. When comparing ourselves to the characters, my wife is Glendale, and I am Becky Apples. Do with that what you will. Anyway, I digress. Knowing this friend loves Wammawink and everyone agrees he is, I decided to make him some Wammawink watercolor art. Of course I forgot to take a picture of it. I do have the line art still, though. He liked it so much he hung it on the wall right away. 

Tis the prime season for my hands to hate the world. I'm a little bit of an overzealous handwasher. I can't say obsessive, it's not that serious, but I do tend to wash my hands twice when finished in the bathroom, if I get sticky stuff or oily stuff on them, or when I've been cleaning. I also do dishes and cook a lot and given that I used to work in food service several years back and also a day care and we had the pandemic... My damn hands are raw! Again! Yes, this happens several times a year. My wife gave a hand salve for Christmas and I don't think it helps much. I have hand creams and lotions but when you hyper focus most of the day on various other things... Sometimes you forget, at least until your hand are itchy and sore or when you are washing your hands again, doing dishes, ect... It sucks!

On to the other reason I am up this early. I have GERD and I am often nauseated. In fact, since my doctor took me off omeprazole because new research says its bad for people long term- I've been on it so long I can't even remember when I was first prescribed it- I've been having a great deal more trouble. Since water gives me heartburn, my doctor's suggestion of diet change to help alleviate the issue had me rolling my eyes mentally. I'm self-aware enough and pay enough attention that I know which foods to avoid that really kick the heartburn off. And since I don't have a gallbladder anymore, I can't do a lot of greasy foods. It's not so much the heartburn anyway, its the fact that I get so nauseous. Lately, I've been throwing up for no good reason, usually first thing in the morning. No, I cannot possibly be pregnant, I had a full hysterectomy a few years ago and given that I am strictly monogamous and married to a woman... well.  Anyway, I am to see a dietician and my doctor again later in the month. We are trying to deal with this and she wants to try me on the medication like Wegovy for weight loss and diabetic prevention. If you've been as heavy as me for as long as I have and nothing else has been working, fuck it, I'll try it.     

Enough of that bitching and on to something fun, at least for me. Magic happened. Real manifestation magic before I'd really tried to put much work into manifesting what I wanted. One of my goals this year is to write at least half of one of the novels I have been trying to write for years. It was a goal last year too, but I could not, for the life of me, write much. Some of it was we were busy. Some of it was I was too tried and worn out. Some of it was impostor syndrome and anxiety and depression. But this year, when I put it on my list and had been talking to a friend about wanting to really do it, she voiced that she wanted to get stuff written too, and suggested starting a writing group. So, I did. And at first I really struggled and it felt like I was ripping every word out of myself, but lately, its just happening. I still struggle, sure, I think every writer does, but I have 35 pages written- which doesn't seem like a lot, but I have been editing and rewriting as I go and instead of doom and gloom and tears, I'm excited to write and think about the story a lot. And, I feel 'normal-ish' again. Like this is where I am supposed to be, what I am supposed to be doing. It's really nice. Since this is something I went to school for and have been doing since I was 13, I've regained a sense of true normalcy that I haven't in years. And it really does feel like I am finally getting my sense of self and my life back.