HEALTH AND HOUSE PLANS

 

This will be my second post for January 2021, a far cry from the 31 posts I made in 2020. With this post, I’ll bring you up-to-date on how I’m doing and what I’m planning, with the goal being a return to fiction writing (and solving Hannah’s and Luke’s problems) in February. Again, I don’t know if I’ll write enough to post each day, but that would be my long-term goal.

First my health seems to be improving. I’ve been able to drop one of the new medications and a follow-up ultrasound of my abdomen showed everything in there as being perfectly normal. An earlier exam had indicated my gall bladder wall was thickened. I tried looking that up, and while I have a medical background (decades ago), most of the scientific terminology about thickened gall bladders didn’t provide a clue as to what the problem might be.

When I talked to my cardiologist on January 29^th, he said I’m doing much better than a lot of people who have had the same problem. He was very impressed that I’m walking almost 75% of my hour’s walk and expect to try for 100% come tomorrow. That’s most likely because I was in such good shape when I became ill. He is having me stop one of the medications on February 14^th and the other one on March 14^th. If I don’t suffer any problems as a result, and I don’t expect to, then I won’t have to resume either one of them. He’s also going to order a chest CAT scan for March or April, just to make sure that everything inside my chest that didn’t appear normal has returned to normal. Again, I don’t expect it will show anything abnormal.

Finally, when it comes to good health, let me just say this. If your health is good, keep on doing whatever it is you’re doing to stay healthy. If it’s not so good, then work with your MD to figure out how to make it better than it is. This was the worst bad health experience I’ve ever had and I don’t want to go there ever again. Even the almost year of breast cancer treatment didn’t knock me down the way this did. But I also know that as I age, I just might have another or more bad health times, but I’m going to keep on doing whatever I can to try to avoid such a experiences.

This occurrence also has caused me to re-evaluate other parts of my life. Before 2020 ended, I was asking contractors for bids on restoring/replacing windows in my house. I also scheduled a foundation firm to come and evaluate and provide a bid for fixing the foundation and leveling the house. Since the house is paid for, I figured BECU would be happy to provide me with a home equity loan to pay for these improvements. I was correct about the loan, but have not completed the necessary paperwork to make it official and don’t plan to do so.

After spending an entire weekend by myself, and I think without a single phone call/text, I decided the absolute best answer for me would be to sell the house as is and find something smaller and more suited to an older person. I considered everything I’d have to do to make the improvements and it sounded like a lot of energy and hard work. I also came to the conclusion that the same amount of energy and hard work would be required to move elsewhere. I do have to admit that making that decision makes me very weepy at times. This house holds 52 years of memories and my garden is full of plants that were given to me by folks I love or planted in memory of folks I love. Not to mention John and all the pets are beneath the apple tree.

I contacted both the window and foundation companies and told them I wasn’t going to proceed. I then contacted the real estate agent (Joe) who had come to visit last fall. I told him I wanted to sell the house as is to a buyer who won’t require an inspection. I told him I would give the information and bids provided by the window and foundation companies to potential buyers and would expect to take a hit on the selling price as a result. I’m sure Joe would prefer to have the inspections done, but I do not want to pay for them and the two major problems have been identified. The plan is to list the house come April.

Perhaps I was a bit stupid, but I found a site on the internet and filled out some information. The enter key had barely been hit when I began to receive emails and phone calls about an estate sale. I didn’t realize I would get such quick and multiple responses. The estate sale wouldn’t happen until the end of March, beginning of April if COVID allows. First, I want to have family members come do a walk through and identify what they would like to take out of this house for their own homes. Except for items which have a lot of meaning for me, everything else in the house will be up for sale. The problem with items that have meaning for me is that I can point to almost anything in the house and tell you where I got it and/or who gave it to me. There are going to be some hard decisions when it comes to stuff, let me tell you.

My goal is to have this house sold and be living somewhere else by June 2021. Joe sends me updates on what comes on the market every other day or so. So far, nothing has grabbed me and made me want to shoot an email back, saying, “THIS IS IT.” It’s actually fun to look at the various condos (lots of those) and small homes (not so many) and try to picture myself living there.

The really exciting part of this whole exercise, aside from moving to a totally new place is buying new stuff for the new place. My living room furniture is too large for a smaller place and I’ve lived with it for almost 50 years and replaced the cushions three times. So, the idea of new furniture, towels, dishes, etc., is extremely exciting. I won’t need as much stuff as I already have here, and hopefully the estate sale will have what I don’t want flying out the door to enhance some stranger’s life/home.

The idea of making a new garden is also inviting although it’s not going to have all the plants I’ve been gifted and that I’ve nurtured for who knows how many years. I know I can most likely take starts from plants like my Great Auntie Lola’s fuschia, but the trees and shrubs planted in memory of a loved one will most likely have to remain. When I think of all the lilies I’ve planted, it makes me sad, but the new owners will undoubtedly enjoy and I can purchase and plant new ones.

Another scary part to this life change is the fact I won’t know a soul in the new neighborhood. Living here, I’m the third oldest person with one woman down the street logging in at 96 and another woman up the street about 89 or so I think. The remaining neighbors are all younger than I, some of them a lot younger with small children. While we aren’t in and out of each other’s homes because it’s never been that kind of neighborhood, I still know everyone and everyone knows me.  I’ll be missing that a lot when I’m gone.

My final concern has to do with the doggies and cat. I can make sure wherever I move allows for pets. Taking Karma and Kaizer with me won’t be difficult, but the cat Zooey, is another matter. I rarely see her and then it’s usually in the rafters of the garage. She has refused to come in since K&K were brought home. I leave the laundry room door ajar so she can come in and eat which is how I know she’s still around…the food and water disappear. I’m not sure how I would go about catching her up and if she’d even stay in the new place. 

So, this is what my spring is going to look like. Spiffing up the house so potential buyers won’t think I’m a total slob; looking at potential new homes; trying not to be too weepy about this big change; curating all the stuff that’s in this house and who knows what else this may entail. January has flown by, at least for me, so it seems like I’ve got a lot to get done by June. Wish me luck.

HERE I GO AGAIN???

 

Well, I guess the first question that comes to mind is, “Have you missed me???” And, please, I hope y’all know I’ve missed you!!! As you all know, I came home from the hospital on Christmas Eve with a slew of MD appointments for follow up. For almost a week, I felt pretty good and tried very hard to not overdo.

On New Year’s Day, I had chills in the afternoon and when I took my temperature, it was 100.7. My chest also began to feel a bit tight and come Sunday, I did an online chat with a doctor. Arrangements were made for me to have another chest x-ray before seeing a doctor Monday morning.

I’d just had a chest x-ray on 12/31 and everything looked fine. The x-ray technician told me Monday morning that one’s heart and lungs can change in the blink of an eye. The Monday x-ray showed I had developed some fluid in my left lung, but not to the extent it had been in the hospital. So, the MD changed my prescription for Ibuprofen to Indomethacin. By the end of last week, the majority of the symptoms had disappeared, and as of today, Friday, 1/15, I am trying to be optimistic and work toward getting back to where I was at the beginning of December.

I’ve talked to or met with via video conference my regular MD and the pulmonologist. I had to have lab work done again Thursday, but am hoping all the numbers have returned to normal so I can stop getting poked every week. My last appointment is a phone call with the cardiologist at the end of the month. At that point, maybe he’ll take me off some of the meds they prescribed and order another CAT scan for some time in March or April to make sure everything in my chest has returned to normal. I’ll be quite happy to go back to utilizing Kaiser a couple times a year, if that, rather than an almost weekly or even daily check-back.

None of the doctors have been able to identify how my problem came to be. Apparently, I developed inflammation in my chest (Did you know they can do a blood test to identify the amount of inflammation???...I didn’t until this happened.) which led to an increase of fluid in the pericardium and my left lung. It’s amazing how much it hurt to breath deeply because of the amount of fluid in both locations. It was also amazing how swiftly my breathing began to return to normal once the fluid had been drained, especially from the pericardium. It’s also amazing how weak I became during this whole episode because I was unable to walk or exercise for more than a month. I wonder how bad it would have been if I hadn’t been as healthy as I was when it all began?

Now, I’m working to regain my strength and stamina. So far this week, I‘ve managed to do my exercises each day. I’ve also walked all around my cul-de-sacs each day a minimum of twice when the rain let up and three times yesterday and today and haven’t felt too terribly exhausted or out of breath. As my son says, “baby steps, ma, baby steps.” Right now, my Fitbit says I’ve walked almost 4,000 steps today. That’s a bit more than half of what I used to step during the hour I walked with my neighbor in the morning. I’m hoping I can return to that hour’s walk beginning Monday.

I lost my appetite during this whole thing, but it finally seems to be returning. I was eating, but nothing tasted all that good, and when I tried to think of something I could order in or make myself, nothing sounded good enough to expend the effort to either get it or make it. So far this week, I’ve made myself something for dinner each night that sounded and tasted great. I even had take-out on Wednesday with a great friend, and we practiced safe contact with masks and distancing from each other at the dining room table…about six feet apart. I’m also hoping to have take-out again today with another friend with whom I’ll also practice social distancing.

I haven’t yet had the energy or imagination to return to posting something on my blog since the end of December. I’m hoping that with this post, I can begin to return to writing. Poor Hannah and Luke have been hanging out there wondering what’s in store for each other for far too long. I’m going to have to go back and read what developed before I can move them forward. I’ve also been playing around with another book idea about someone named Charlie Something…not much imagined so far beyond her name and where I think I want her to go.

I’ve missed writing and posting and hearing back whatever anyone wants to respond. One individual pointed out I only had about four (4) people who were reading my posts, but I think there are more of you who do read, but don’t post a “like” or a comment. And that’s just fine because in most cases, I’m writing for my own enjoyment rather than to receive approbation from the readers. I also found it amazing how lack of energy steals any creative ideas right out of my head. I would have thought that all that laying around and doing nothing would lead to a lot of creativity, but, nope, it didn’t one single little bit. I found that rather disappointing and look at all those days as wasted days and opportunities, although my body was in the process of healing itself and that’s most likely where all the energy, creative or otherwise, went.

For now, I’m not promising to have a blog post each and every day. I don’t have a 2021 goal of posting something every day. I’ll post whatever I manage to create at any given point whether it does happen every day or once a week. Meanwhile, I’m wishing y’all an extremely happy and HEALTHY 2021. I’m also hoping we all can get vaccinated in the very near future.

FINAL 2020 BLOG POST

 

This will be my final blog post for 2020 and I’m sorry to say I didn’t reach my goal of 366 posts, or one each day. I was unable to write and post to my blog during the five days I was in the hospital. Still, I’m proud of myself for sticking with my goal even though the blog posts I initially imagined I would do never came to fruition. Those would have been all the posts I’d have made during my travels in 2020. As we all know, travel was no longer an option after February.

I also envisioned a readership of hundreds, if not thousands, when it came to my blog. I don’t believe my number of readers ever passed ten and certainly not even 20 unless folks read my blog but chose not to “like” or “comment.” But that’s okay, because I found I was writing more for my own self rather than any readers. True, it was nice to see comments, to know people looked forward to the next post, and to read how much they liked what I’d written.

Beyond that, I’m proud of myself for a number of reasons which I’ll reiterate here.

(1)           When I began this blog, I was so angry at John I could barely say a single good thing about him. Over the course of the year, I’ve managed to let go of that anger. Rather than remember how he hurt me I’ve now chosen to remember all the wonderful experiences we shared during our long marriage. As someone told me decades ago: ”There are times in a marriage when you feel as though you are walking alone through a very dark valley and the sunshine is a mere pinprick in the sky. But you persevere and eventually you’ll climb back out of that valley to create and share even better memories in the sunshine. It’s great memories that get you through that valley.” And in our marriage of 53 years, we had far more great, fun, loving and exciting good memories than bad.

(2)          When I began this blog, I thought I’d be blogging about the exciting life I was planning. I managed to go on one cruise before the world came to a screeching halt and I really enjoyed that cruise and blogging about the experiences I had. Since life was definitely not very exciting, I still somehow managed to find stuff to blog about. Hopefully, the majority of my blogs were not full of “poor me” and whining.

(3)          Well, I did get a bit tired of whining and looking for stuff to blog about, so I decided to write an erotic book. I was surprised at how the words fell out of my fingertips. Even more surprising to me was the fact I managed to follow the story line and actually complete my story about SHE. In 2021, I’m going to submit it somewhere and see if it’s publishable. Also, did you know there’s an erotica group on Facebook. I’ve joined, but haven’t done much with them just yet. I’m going to spend a bit more time there and see if I find it helpful. Apparently, you can self-publish through Amazon, but I don’t know anything about that yet either.

(4)          I started a second book that’s more story and less eroticism. It’s something that’s been in the back of my file cabinet for many years. I wasn’t able to finish it before 2020 ended, but I’ll continue to work on it in 2021 and bring it to closure as well.

(5)          Most of all, I found I really enjoy writing. I’ve always wanted to be a writer, or have been a writer, but never actually took or made the time to sit and actually follow through with a project. I cannot begin to tell you how many projects were more or less completed that found their way into the shredder. It makes me feel very good and accomplished when I push back from the keyboard knowing I’ve created something whether it’s a book chapter or a simple blog about gardening or a memory of something in my past. I plan to continue writing because it brings me pleasure.

So, finally, tonight at midnight, 2020 will come to an end. They always picture the end of the year as the grim reaper. This year in particular, the grim reaper has to be totally and completely exhausted from all the souls he harvested throughout the year. I know, like most people, I will be exceedingly happy to see the end of this year.

The beginning of a new year, 2021, is always pictured as an infant. I seriously hope 2021’s infant has had every single vaccination available. I seriously hope this coming year will be 1,000% better than the past year. It is my fondest hope, wish, prayer that by July 1^st, if not before, we’ll once again be able to congregate, exchange hugs and kisses, and look at shelter in place as something in our pasts, that those of us alone don’t HAVE to be alone, but can simply CHOOSE to be alone when we wish to be.

So, I’m wishing each and every single one of you a HAPPY and HEALTHY  2021. And to ensure that it is HEALTHY, please continue to wear your masks, use sanitizer, wash, wash, wash those hands and STAY HOME as much as possible. I’m also hoping, praying, and wishing that come 12/31/2021, this pandemic will be over and that we all learned something extremely valuable from the experience that will make our lives more wonderful going forward.

MEDICAL ISSUES...

 

Seem to have stolen my creativity, or perhaps I’m just more exhausted from the ordeal than I think I am. Saw the MD for a check-back yesterday and all looks fine, although he did tell me that it could take up to a couple of months before I’m totally restored to where I was before this happened to me.

          And, I’m not done with visits to Kaiser. I have to have another chest x-ray tomorrow, more blood work in a week, a video chat with my MD the end of next week, a video chat with a pulmonologist the following week, and today I’ll be scheduling what I assume will be another video chat with cardiology. The fun seems to be leaking into 2021, so I’m going to pretend it’s still 2020 until it’s all behind me.

          I’ve utilized Kaiser Permanente more since 12/1, than I’ve used them in the last two years. The Good Lord willing and the creeks don’t rise I’m hoping to return to that pattern beginning 2/1/2021 and keep it up all through 2021 and quite possibly 2022. I’ve really had enough medical visits to last me for quite some time.

          Today I'll be getting a massage and I'm sure that will make me feel ever so much better. Meanwhile, I thank you all again for your concern and support during this, the most difficult time I’ve had medically since breast cancer in 2000.

DOCTORS AND NURSES...

 

were absolutely amazing. I may have complained about the hospital food and television, but I have absolutely no complaints about the care I received from the doctors and nurses at both Urgent Care and in the hospital. It was so terrific; I plan to write letters to them expressing my thanks and appreciation for how well they all looked after me.

It began with the doctor I saw on Thursday. He called first thing Friday to inform me my red blood count was very low and I should go immediately to Urgent Care. When I arrived at Urgent Care, I barely sat down before they called my name. They took me right in, asked me a bunch of questions and then moved me into a room. Clad in a hospital gown…they are really the height of fashion…there were more questions, blood draws and a trip downstairs for more CT scans.

No one really talked to me about the scans, but the one doctor who seemed responsible for me, eventually told me I was going to be admitted to Swedish Cherry Hill. He did tell me they couldn’t find a reason for why my red blood cell count had gone down, and that it was continuing to drop. They’d get it all figured out at the hospital, he was sure.

Three very nice young men came to transport me to the hospital. They made sure I was comfortable, strapped in securely, and made conversation, probably in case they thought I might be frightened. It was my first time ever in an ambulance, but since I wasn’t critical, they didn’t turn on the lights or the sirens. That was perfectly fine, but it might have been fun to go faster than we did because the roads are so very bad, I felt every single bump and dip.

I figured they would leave me in the ER, but instead, they walked me and my gurney through the hospital. I believe if they’d decided to abandon me at any point, I’d probably still be trying to find my way out of that maze. We arrived at what was to be my room for the next six nights, transferred me to the bed, got their paperwork signed and wished me well.

My nurse that night was Kevin. He was from southeast Asia and I think he told me he’d lived in Hawaii. Actually, his father was in the armed forces, so he lived in a lot of different places. He made me comfortable, took my vitals and returned every four hours to take my vitals again. It was still very difficult to breath.

The next morning, I met Dr. Phan who would be my doctor through Monday. He assured me they would get to the bottom of my problem. Kevin was replaced by Regine and Kristin and they popped in and out with medications, checking my vital signs, checking on me throughout the day. They didn’t allow me any food until late afternoon and I’ve already blogged about that.

Sunday morning, nothing had been accomplished and I felt worse than ever. When Dr. Phan came to see me, I cried like a baby and told him I felt hopeless, that I just kept getting worse and there didn’t appear to be any rhyme or reason. He patted my leg several times and assured me they would figure out my problem and make me well again.

After Dr. Phan left, I got up to go to the bathroom without notifying the nursing station. I was barely back in bed when I had three nurses around my bed. One of them gave me holy hell for getting out of bed. She told me I wasn’t to move from that bed, that they were going to bring a commode or bed pan. The other two nurses were Regine and Kristin and I never saw the one who raised hell with me again. Later on, I learned the reason for the big upset…my heart rate climbed precipitously to 133 during my little trek and I was very short of breath.

I don’t know if it was the tears or exactly what, by come noon that day, I was transferred to an OR where Dr. Demopolis removed the fluid from around my heart. I had been told it was a “moderate” amount, but the doctor and all his assistants (4 of them) seemed amazed at the amount. Dr. Demopolis left the drain in the pericardium which was a good thing since there was even more fluid that leaked out over the next 12 hours or so. The nurses had to change my gown and top sheet twice, plus the bandages twice more to keep up with the fluid that kept draining.

I cannot begin to tell you how much better I felt when the fluid was drained away. The huge rubber band that had been compressing my chest was gone and I could almost take a very deep breath without any pain or discomfort. Finally, we were getting somewhere.

On Monday, the pulmonologist, whose name I didn’t learn and who had arrived the day before while I was in the OR, came to my room with his assistant who handled the ultrasound. Together, they inserted another drain through my left back and removed the fluid that was in the plural membrane. Again, it was way more than they expected. This doctor also told me that as my lung re-inflated and expanded I might have some pain. Fortunately, there was no additional pain and I could actually take a very deep breath.

Regine and Kristin continued to take care of me on Monday and on Tuesday, it was just Regine. They didn’t come to check on me quite as often as before, but that was okay because I was getting better all the time.

Dr. Phan’s last day on the floor was Monday and he had indicated maybe I could go home on Tuesday. Dr. Burney replaced Dr. Phan and there was no way I as going to be discharged on Tuesday. She didn’t have any answers to any of the questions as to why this had happened to me nor were there any answers to why I had become anemic so quickly. It was possible I could go home Wednesday, but she wasn’t going to make that decision until then.

On Wednesday, my nurses were Courtney and Jen. Courtney had just graduated from nursing school and Jen was her mentor. They also took excellent care of me. Unfortunately, Dr. Burney still didn’t have enough answers to allow me to go home on Wednesday, but she more or less promised I could go Thursday morning.

Dr. Burney kept her promise even though she still didn’t have any answers. She told me the fluid in the lab wasn’t growing anything, so it wasn’t a bacterium, but perhaps had been viral. She also thought perhaps the anemia was due to the amount of inflammation in my chest, that my bone marrow had decided to take a break from manufacturing those important red cells. However, the blood work did indicate the red blood cells were now increasing as opposed to the decreasing they’d been doing.

It’s been decades since I spent any time in the hospital. Yes, I had both hips replaced and a shoulder repair, but they got me up and out within a day or two. Then, the care I received was excellent, but I wasn’t there long enough to really understand how it all worked.

I found it amazing that no matter who the nurses were that came on duty, my care was seamless. In the space of those seven days, I had at least seven different nurses and the ones going off-duty handed off my care to the incoming nurses. It was absolutely amazing how they coordinated so there were no mistakes or slip-ups. And, they’re not just nurses who administer medical care, but also are responsible for removing the trash and soiled linen. In the past, there was janitorial services who took care of that and I don’t know if it’s a COVID thing or if those chores have been added to a nurse’s workload.

Finally, let me say how amazed I was at the trash that was generated just in my room. I know it’s necessary to keep everything fresh and antiseptic, but the amount of trash generated each day when it came to blood draws, glucose checks, vital sign checks, etc., was simply mind-boggling. Someone really needs to invent that medical thingie they used on all the Star Trek programs…it monitored your body and fixed it without the use of all the products we now require.

I have absolutely no plans to return to the hospital for another stay, but it is exceedingly wonderful to know the care provided is extremely effective. Being either a doctor or a nurse was never a goal for me, but I’m thankful there are wonderful people who choose those occupations. They are a very special breed of human and I don’t think we can ever thank them enough for the work and care they provide.

HOSPITAL FOOD...

 

absolutely sucked. There are supposedly two menus, one for diabetics and a general one. I somehow ended up with the general menu, but I’m sure the diabetic one couldn’t have been much better. About the only thing I found palatable was string cheese.

To begin with, I wasn’t allowed to eat anything on Friday. They finally brought me a sandwich just as I was to be transferred from Urgent Care to the hospital. It was turkey, lettuce and tomato on wheat bread. Unfortunately, the tomato slices had been placed next to the bread, so it was a soggy mess. Hungry as I was, I barely managed to eat half, if that.

On Saturday, I was again not allowed to eat in case they decided to put something down my throat. It was late afternoon when I was finally allowed to order food. Breakfast menu was no an option, which I would have preferred, so I ordered a salad and a toasted cheese sandwich. I did not order salad again because it tasted terrible and the toasted cheese was barely warm. I did order the toasted cheese once more to go with tomato bisque which wasn’t terrible, but did not in any way, shape or form equal what I make myself at home.

Breakfast wasn’t bad when I was allowed to have it. I usually had cheerios or hot oatmeal with milk or yogurt and peanut butter toast. That was palatable, but I dreaded lunch and dinner, because no matter what I ordered, it wasn’t very good. In most cases, I ate what they brought, but the thought of a juicy hamburger (the hospital one was extremely dry and flavorless), slice of pizza, or anything else from outside sounded delicious.

Since coming home, I’ve made my own tomato soup and toasted cheese, had a small round of softened brie with crackers and ordered Mexican food yesterday when I went out shopping. Today I’m going to make some spaghetti sauce and have that with a fresh salad for dinner.

So, another reason to avoid hospitalization, and perhaps another way the hospital encourages its patients to return home to their own cooking as soon as possible.

HOSPITAL TELEVISION...

 

absolutely sucks, and yet the only activity available when I wasn’t sleeping or dozing was to stare at the television mounted on the wall. There were maybe 15 channels from which to choose and practically none of them had any decent programming. One day I said something to one of my nurses who laughed and said she told patients the hospital planned it that way so we patients would be eager to return home to our preferred programming.

Programming consisted of some shows I’d never watched before and plan to never watch again. One was called Hoarders. Now, I realize the people profiled in these programs are seriously mentally ill. But where were their family and friends when the problem first began? I know my own family would do an intervention should they realize my house was being overrun by rabbits or cats, filled with piles of garbage or so filthy it would be amazing I could live in such squalor.

Family members were included in these programs, but they seemed almost as bad as the hoarder or had simply given up on trying to make the hoarder’s life better. I also found myself wondering how and why these individuals would agree to have the hoarder’s life profiled in such a program or agree to be part of the process when it came to trying to improve the hoarder’s life. I’m sure they were all paid some kind of fee for their participation, but I’m also sure that the hoarder went right back to his or her bad habits once the cameras left.

Another show was called Dr. Pimple Popper. Again, I’m sure the people with the problem were paid to participate as well as given free treatment, hotel and travel accommodations. I only saw a couple of these shows before that channel was replaced by fuzziness, but it was sort of sickeningly amazing. I think the doctor’s name was Lee. She was Asian and very nice and appeared to know her business. I didn’t see her pop any pimples, but I did watch as she removed lipomas from the various patients. In every case, the patient left feeling as though s/he had been given a new lease on life because the ugly growth or problem no longer existed.

Then, there were the commercials. Seriously, have you ever known anyone who received a car for Christmas with a HUGE bow on top. I’m sure that does happen, but not for anyone I know. There was even one commercial where the husband bought not one, but two vehicles and told his wife to choose…she chose the one he wanted for himself. Seriously, I don’t know anyone personally who could afford to gift one car, let alone two whether it was Christmas or July 4^th.

What about all those glittery diamonds that flash or slowly rotate across the screen. Again, I don’t know anyone personally who would go out and spend thousands on a Christmas gift of diamonds or any other item that would cost so much. I believe most of the people I know, and my own family look at the Christmas budget and spend less than a hundred dollars on gifts.

I found myself wondering who all those people are who do have the funds to spend so outrageously. I also found, and perhaps my age has something to do with that and the fact I don’t need or want more stuff, myself grateful my Christmas wish list is small and reasonable.

Now that I’m back home, the TV programs I’m watching are the ones I choose from a much larger variety and the commercials are either nonexistent or I fast-forward through them. And, you know what, I don’t miss seeing all those fanciful commercials one single bit, plus even if I run across programs like Hoarders or Dr. Pimple Popper, I won’t be tuning in to watch. What I’ve already seen, was way more than enough.