Whines of 2012 — Updated 12/17/2012

Posted on April 24, 2012 in Anxiety Dentition Dogs Health OCD Spirituality and Being Whines

Let me count the ways the events of the past few months have screwed me. Note that there may will be additions as the weeks pass…so keep checking this article. It will be a mega-whine!

• First, my mother dies of a glioblastoma — brain cancer — the same disease that killed her father. The oncologist told me that he doubted it was hereditary. I am waiting for the announcement of a new hereditary variety any day.
• Drake gets into a fight with a larger dog.
• Lynn begins to bleed beyond her period. I talk her into seeing a doctor. She gets referred and referred until she is scheduled for a hysterectomy which is then handed over to an oncologist who tells us that only 2% of the patients her age presenting with her symptoms have cancer. He repeats this just before he performs the operation. It is only supposed to take half an hour. An hour and fifteen minutes later, I notice the time. He comes out with a grim look on his face and tells me that he found a malignant mass on her left ovary. Two days later, we learn to our relief that it is not ovarian cancer, but uterine cancer that has metasticized up the left fallopian tube. She spends nearly a week in the hospital. I tell people, with a sigh, that someone has to be the 2%.
• We skip my mother’s memorial service. This was supposed to be our vacation.
• We now need to make the condo readily cleanable. So we have to rip out the carpet and put in new flooring. Everything small in the condo needs to be brought into the garage.
• My favorite cat — Fiona — dies.
• The bathroom sink backs up.
• I hurt my back.
• I cut my hands and my knees.
• I gain weight and fall out of the great shape I was in in the fall.
• My other cat — Little Bo — goes crazy when I send her to board at the vet, so we take her out. I take her to a motel because the people Lynn is staying with don’t want a cat in their house.
• The floorers discover that our floor is not level. Either because of settling or because the builders screwed up 22 years ago or both, there are large humps all over the condo. We need to spend an additional $1000 to fix these.
• Lynn’s hair starts to fall out from the chemo. She is given a 75-80% chance to live.
• Drake runs away three times in one day from the house where we send him to stay during the remodeling. Turns out he is slipping under a gate, so we block the way. I resolve to visit him every day.
• My dentist informs me that three of my crowns need to be replaced.
• Weather report promises rain for two days, pushing back the time before we can move back into the condo.
• Painter discovers the reason why the previous owners covered the bathroom in wallpaper — there was damage to the walls that they were too lazy to plaster over. Plus they used white glue to hold it in place. (What kind of idiot puts wallpaper in a bathroom?) Add more money to the cost of the job.
• Our new maid asks for a cabinet. She puts it outside on the deck because the weather report says that it will only be cloudy and the weather report is never wrong. It drizzles heavily all night. I do manage to cover it and wipe down the wet parts before putting it in the garage the next morning.
• We put felt feet on everything except for one file cabinet which has a sharp lip that we can’t find a way of covering.
• We witness an accident when we come out of a local restaurant. One man hurt. I’m glad it wasn’t one more thing to add to this list, but I would rather it didn’t happen to these people, either.
• The dentist informed me that I needed to have a tooth pulled.
• The garbage disposal dies necessitating its replacement. (Yes, we pushed the red button, cranked the main rotor, etc. The repairman did the same things.)
• The tooth extraction will entail some painful digging around because the tooth has broken into three pieces. Plus I will have to undergo a sinus tap and bone graft three months after the first surgery. Plus insurance will only cover about $78 of the total. How about some dental insurance reform?
• Drake found a new way to get out by forcing his way through one of the front window screens.
• Just before we are to get the good news that Lynn’s treatment is going so well, they may end it before they had planned, the phone rings and someone tells me that my dog is out. “No, he can’t be out. We locked him up.” “No, your dog jumped out of the second story window….” Drake is fine, but I am angry with God about heaping so much crap and denying us the joy of the moment when we learned that things were going better than hoped for Lynn. Now we have to put out a thousand dollars for custom interior louver shutters.
• An old obsession with the number 13 has returned. If I check the time, it is 13 after. I haven’t gotten to the point of counting things to see if they add up to 13 as I do when the obsession is truly out of control, but it is getting there. I wish I knew how to break the cycle. This is not a good sign for my mental health.
• My country is going to hell.
• Last Friday afternoon, I am chewing on some licorice when I feel something hard between my teeth. It is a crown. Given the day, I can’t get in to have it looked at, so I wait until Monday. My dentist looks at it, frowns, and refers me to an endodontist. He looks at it, frowns, and refers me to a periodontist to have the tooth pulled. The bicuspid has broken down to where the nerve is. Do I feel any pain? Dare I say that I don’t?
• So now I have to have two teeth pulled, on opposite sides of the mouth! This will mean liquid diets, I dread.
• Chest pains. This led to a three day hospital stay. My roommate was a whining biker. My mother who was a nurse had warned me about these and she was right! He bossed the staff and cried when the needles hurt. (Like, duh!) I was going so crazy by day three that I threatened to check out AMA if they didn’t release me.
• Triglycerides are through the roof. No explanation yet for the chest pains.
• Doctor cancelled her appointment with me due to illness. Does this really belong here? Maybe not.
• Lynn had a blowout on the road that took out at least a third of her sidewall. She is all right. Rims were not damaged.
• I keep getting #1141 errors every time I open up Rosetta Stone. Restarting doesn’t do a bloody thing.
• We discover that the right front of Lynn’s car has been crushed. Week in the body shop.
• Night of the malfunctioning software. Can’t move Rosetta Stone to a new computer and can’t get a game program to work on a new computer.
• Friends don’t like my politics. Plus I temporarily pick up a roach who is against privatization, but sure Obama is going to push us that way. Where do these people get these ideas?
• I put on 15 pounds.
• Learn that my cousin killed himself. Attend the funeral.
• Third tooth slated to be pulled in January.
• Repairman drops an electric drill onto our wood laminate floor, leaving a dime-sized hole where it can’t be covered by a rug.
• Massive struggle to install Windows 8. Headphones decide not to work. I buy a new pair, only to discover that the problem is still there. Then I discover a simple fix.
• Extraction of second tooth has complications — one root takes an hour to pull. Fortunately, I am well sedated.

YES I KNOW IT CAN BE WORSE AND THAT IS WHAT WORRIES ME!

Everyone is telling me that “things will get better”. I sigh and reread Job.

At least Lynn’s chemo is over and the scans are looking good. And Obama won.