Since the election, I have received many more unwanted emails in my personal email account. Most are from right-wing media outlets, financial or investment websites, or Conservative PACs. And most ask for money.
As a liberal, I am sure I have never been on such sites and certainly have not subscribed to receive emails from them. At first, I simply deleted them or marked them as junk mail and then moved on. But as they continued to appear in my inbox, I began to get angry and decided to click on their “Unsubscribe” button. This led me to a page where I encountered a second “Unsubscribe to All Emails” button, which I promptly clicked on. Problem solved.
Nope. Not even close. The more of these sites I “Unsubscribed” to, the more new sites with similar content began to appear. Clicking on the button set off a chain reaction that sent out more and more unwanted emails. Now, what do I do?
Do I ignore them and delete them as I receive them? Or do I continue to “Unsubscribe” to them and receive even more? Either way, I feel as though they have defeated me. As angry as I get when I receive this junk mail, I’ll just have to accept it as a downside of our modern technology.
Has anyone else experienced this phenomenon? If so, how do you deal with the non-stop chain reaction?
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It seems like the older I get, the more body parts fail or wear out, like an old junker car. The whole disgusting process is gradual and comes when you least expect it. I think my body is getting even with me for all the abuse I subjected it to in my younger years.
This past week, I had the final medical procedure in a series of tests to determine the cause of three bowel blockages I had over 18 months. Nothing abnormal was discovered. I hadn’t had any troubles in the 8 months since my last hospitalization. So, I was feeling both relieved and encouraged about my prognosis.
I had just finished a lunch of sushi and was ready to continue putting the finishing touches on our inside Christmas decorations when suddenly I was doubled over in pain.” OMG. Not again,” I thought. I didn’t want to end up in the Emergency Room or the hospital again. It gets rather costly, especially when you never find out what’s wrong.
I hoped it was just gas, which I frequently get along with bloating, as I have IBS, (Irritable Bowel Syndrome). I began eating anti-gas tablets in hopes of easing the pain. It helped for a while, but the epigastric pain returned, this time in waves. Oddly, I felt hungry, but there was no way I was going to eat anything. I still feared another bowel blockage, even though the pain was not the same.
As the evening progressed, the pain subsided to a dull ache in my upper abdomen. It felt familiar, as if I had experienced these pains a few years ago. That’s when I had frequent gallbladder attacks, which finally resulted in the removal of my gallbladder.
During the night, I only experienced slight soreness in my stomach and intestines. In the middle of the night, I developed a fever, and when that broke, all my pain was gone. Strangely, I had to get up and pee at least 5 times during the night, which destroyed my good night’s rest.
Upon waking, my stomach was a little sore, like someone had punched me in the gut, but otherwise, I felt back to normal but tired. Thinking about what had happened, I don’t feel what bothered me last evening had anything to do with my prior bowel blockages. I think I passed a bile duct stone. Even though I no longer have a gallbladder, I can still have bile duct stones. Aren’t I lucky?
It’s discouraging to have my body attack me in this way, even though I have done my best to eat a nutritious, healthy diet. I guess our bodies never forget the wild, carefree days of our youth.
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If any of my readers remember, I was hospitalized three times with a bowel blockage in 18 months. To determine the cause, I’ve had an MRI, tried the FODMAP diet, and attempted a video capsule endoscopy. The MRI showed nothing. The FODMAP diet helped decrease diarrhea, bloating, and stomach pain.
But before I could have a video capsule endoscopy, I first had to swallow a capsule without a camera to ensure the capsule would not get stuck. This failed, but luckily, the capsule dissolved after three days.
My doctors said it would be too dangerous to do the endoscopy for fear the camera would get stuck and need to be surgically removed. The last option was to have a diagnostic colonoscopy. And tomorrow is the day.
If no one has had a colonoscopy before, the actual procedure is not bad at all. It’s the preparation that’s a killer!
Four days before the procedure, I had to quit eating high-fiber food. Two days before the procedure, I had to stop eating solid food at 9 pm. The day before is the worst.
Today, I can only have clear liquids, such as tea, coffee, apple juice, broth, or jello. At noon, I took two laxative pills and prepared two 28-oz. bottles of Gatorade mixed with 8 oz. of Miralax laxative. Starting at 5 o’clock, I have to start drinking one of these bottles every 15 minutes until it is gone.
At 5 am tomorrow, I have to begin drinking the second bottle until that bottle is gone. I have to arrive at the hospital at 10:15 for the procedure. Shortly after this, I should be out like a light and wake up with the procedure finished, hungry as hell.
Needless to say, I won’t be doing much today. That is why I am spending the day on my laptop, engaging on Medium, and being as close to the bathroom as possible.
After this procedure, I hope I will find some answers as to why I have had three bowel blockages. If the colonoscopy reveals nothing abnormal, it will be good news. There is the possibility that the Ibuprofen I had been taking for my arthritis pains caused a stricture in my large bowel. I no longer take Ibuprofen, so hopefully, that stricture, if it existed, has disappeared.
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Goodbye
November. I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and is looking
forward to the Christmas and New Year holidays. For some of us, we also
look forward to a long, cold, and snowy winter.
This
past week, I wrote articles on Thanksgiving, of course, especially an
unpleasant surprise after my Thanksgiving meal, Writing on Medium and
Politics. I also republished a personal story from 2019. I hope you
enjoy them.
Thank
you for subscribing to my newsletter. If you are not a Member of Medium
or cannot open the above links to my articles, you can click on the
link to my blog, Steve Sovie’s World, where you can read them for free.
Yesterday, we had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner celebrating with our neighbors. My family lives about five hours away, in the snowbelt area of Central and Northern New York, and quite frequently, driving is hazardous during the holidays. So we don’t like to take a chance of being snowed in. My husband’s family lives in Malaysia, and naturally, they don’t celebrate the holiday.
We are fortunate to have fantastic friends who are our next-door neighbors. Since we moved here, they have invited us to spend Thanksgiving with their family. This year was no exception. Our neighbor usually orders the largest fresh turkey available from our local turkey farm, as at least 16 people are usually in attendance.
We had finished our sumptuous meal and were enjoying a variety of tasty desserts, my favorite part of the meal. I had utterly stuffed myself and was looking forward to a bit of rest. Suddenly, a neighbor who lives across the street was at the door saying the sewer had backed up, causing sewage to leak into the basements of several homes on the street.
My husband rushed home to find we had minimal leakage, but the house wreaked of the smell of sewage. Two houses across the street had raw sewage pouring into their basements from basement utility sinks and toilets. The only thing I could think about was that I had IBS, and I couldn’t go too long after eating without needing to go to the bathroom.
Of all days for this to happen, when large families were gathering to indulge in a heavy meal. There were no public bathrooms nearby, and most stores were closed. There was only one gas station about three miles away.
No one knew who to call in such an emergency, and no emergency numbers were listed for our town. Finally, one neighbor called his friend, a town supervisor who sent the town highway department to assess the situation.
Luckily, they found the blockage and opened the sewer within an hour. Three hours after finishing a hearty Thanksgiving meal, our holiday nightmare was over. I was relieved, in more ways than one.
I hope you all had a happy, uneventful Thanksgiving. If not, please share with us.
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I’d like to wish a very warm and happy holiday to my fellow American friends who are celebrating Thanksgiving. May all your hopes and dreams come true, as you give thanks for friends and family.
As you sit down to either a traditional Thanksgiving meal of turkey and all the fixings, or you celebrate with a meal in keeping with your family’s ethnic traditions, remember that we are all one big family-the human family.
Even though many Medium members living all over the world don’t celebrate American Thanksgiving on this particular day, rest assured you are included in our Thanksgiving thoughts as we gather together in the spirit of love, hope, and gratitude.
It seems as though I awaken to another part of my body hurting every morning. Sometimes, I lay in bed and count how many aches and pains I have. This morning, instead of getting out of bed immediately, I contemplated my aging process.
When I was much younger, the only pains I could remember were growing pains as my arms and legs lengthened in adolescence. Now, the bones are doing the opposite as I lose height.
I am 76 years old now. My pains started about ten years ago. I began to realize I couldn’t engage in the same activities I did when I was younger, like running or walking, without hurting my knees. I don’t think I could run now if I tried. Tennis was out, as was any sport aside from bowling.
I began developing COPD, and the asthma I suffered from as a youth returned. So, if I did anything strenuous, my breathing would create more problems than my decreased physical stamina. But I am not talking about being unable to perform athletically, like when I was in my twenties.
I have arthritis, sciatica, a pinched nerve in my lower back, and bursitis in my left shoulder. I know why I have those pains and what I can do to help relieve them. I know the pain worsens when the weather gets bad. I can’t take NSAIDs, so I suck it up.
The aches and pains I want to talk about are those that come out of nowhere for no apparent reason. For example, this morning, I counted slight pains in my right shoulder, my left knee, my right elbow, and my left ankle. I could also feel small, weird pains in my stomach. I have undiagnosed stomach problems, so I have these most days, and it’s probably gas-I hope. Why am I having these annoying little pains?
When I managed to crawl out of bed, I could hardly raise my arm to turn the bathroom light on. I hobbled into the bathroom to begin my morning routine. My hot shower did wonders in relieving most of my pains. When I got out of the shower, I stretched, improving my bursitis-affected shoulder's range of movement.
I ate my breakfast and drank my tea; I have IBS, so I can’t drink coffee. I unenthusiastically took off for the gym to engage in my workout routine. I felt happy when it was over but glad I had completed my exercises. With a slight spring in my step, I walked to the car, knowing that this euphoria would not last.
Only a couple of hours after lunch, I developed a pain in my ankle when I walked. “Where did that come from?” I asked myself. It was just another mysterious pain, reminding me I was getting old. I sat down on the couch for a while to catch up on the news and rest from my workout. A half-hour later, every muscle and bone in my body felt like I got hit by a truck. My joints were as stiff as a corpse.
Tonight, I know I will go to bed to rest my achy bones and sleep like a baby -until morning, when it all begins again, with new pains in new locations and old pains reminding me of my age.
I don’t like the aches and pains, but I accept them, knowing I can lessen their intensity with stretching and exercise. I don’t always feel like going to the gym, but I know if I sit on my ass at home, I will soon be crippled by the aging process. I also know the alternative to the aches and pains is unacceptable. They are all part of life.
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