Yesterday Terry Teachout wrote, “life has a way of pitching curve balls at your head.” He has been released from the hospital, and before heading off to spend Christmas with his family in Smalltown, USA, he updated his friends and blog followers on his ordeal.
TT has a serious ailment — congestive heart failure — but as he told me in an email message, “The good news, say the doctors, is that no permanent damage was done to the heart muscle and that IF I DO WHAT THEY TELL ME TO I can make a more or less complete recovery.”
Along with less salt and more exercise, one of the many mandates is sure to be reducing stress. The challenge of doing so is stressful in and of itself. As I told him in an email reply, “it won’t be easy, so get ready for the battle has just begun…You’ll need a support group, so lean on your friends — YOU ARE NOT ALONE — you have a formidable army at your disposal, so use us.”
I know whereof I speak. It will be ten years this summer since I told the grim reaper to take a hike. I thought I was immortal. Then, two years after that, the doctors happily reported that the cancer was still gone but diagnosed MS — more lifestyle changes. I’m still here, but superwoman took a nosedive. Priorities change in the proverbial blink of an eye and it is astounding what we we mere mortals can do, the things we can live with, and live without. Superwoman rises from the dead from time to time and tries to fly; sometimes I manage to hold her down, but sometimes I just let her soar…and pay for it later. Life requires an ongoing attitude adjustment, and it’s hard work.
Sharing your thoughts and fears, and reaching out to friends, makes the job a tad easier, and Terry is off to a good start. Read his account posted yesterday — Time off for good behavior — it is as eloquent as always with a touch of introspection mixed in with humor and journalistic details.