Wednesday, October 23, 2024

Making an Appearance

 Yes, I’m still alive and yes, I have somehow found a way to stay out of the hospital. In fact my wife and I back in September were able to have a week-long vacation down at Hilton Head Island. It was the first time I had visited the coast in maybe eighteen months where I wasn’t going to see one of my cardiologists or be admitted to the hospital.

Given that I am still on the heart transplant list my health is disgustingly good. No noticeable arrhythmias and the transplant team have reduced my trips down to Charleston for a right heart catheterization from every three months to once a year.

Right heart catheterizations determine how badly a patient’s heart is failing. In simple terms, my cardiomyopathy is insignificant, as long as I continue to take my medicine.

So right now I am stuck in a holding pattern. My dormant underlying condition continues to be the faulty electrical system in my heart. And to put it mildly my heart is a bomb that my faulty genetics will with absolute certainty detonate at some point.   

The thing that irritates me greatly is that I have less free time now than when my kids were little. Mainly it’s management at my job that keeps adding duties to the group I work with without even considering hiring any new people. In fact, we’ve had several people in my group retire over the last couple of years and have another who leaves sometime in November.

Now throw in yard maintenance along assorted repairs to the home on the weekend and I haven’t had any interest in trying to write. Well, that's not quite true. I wrote an eleven page story dealing with the breakup of a marriage that I published on Reddit. It got numerous good reviews and upvotes but I doubt I’ll share it here.

The story deals with extremely sensitive topics, far more than the fiction I have posted here, and I find the idea of posting on Blogspot uncomfortable, maybe even embarrassing.

So that’s the update. My much neglected blog is still alive and with my front and backyard going dormant for a couple of months I’ll try to post more frequently.  

 So I'll be back sooner rather than later.