Growing up . . .

. . . Worried ---And Still Worried

I am worried right now - will this computer hold all the things I might talk about in this month's contest theme (Growing Up) if I list all my worries This blog could turn out to be a three or four installment effort - or even a series.

Anyway, let's get started but old age memories come slow so I will begin with the latest worries and work backwards through the years.

The first two involve Old Newsie's eyes and will the motor vehicle people grant me another year's driving license come June and next (it was first the few months) is daughter Scrabblebuff's kidney transplant going to be an on-going joy for her?

About the eyes. Nearly didn't get a license renewal last year despite my eyesight being in fairly good shape because I couldn't read the smallest line on the DVD's eye chart.

Had to have the eye doctor certify in writing my sight was improving with treatment and I could drive OK. Probably will have to go that route again this year. A Monday appointment with my Texas Retina opthamologist may tell the tale.

Now switch to Lakewood in Washington state. Scrabblebuff has just arrived back home in Lakewood near Fort Lewis and her doctors at Madigan Army Medical Center.

She's been away at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, DC, for two months or so. where in a successful operation, she received a new kidney after a nearly three-year wait which included half that time on dialysis.

As of this afternoon my worries are settling now with her announcement that other than periodic rises in potassium levels, she is feeling fine and making plans to get back into college for a degree in communications and enroll in government retraining in new fields of employment.

Scrabblebuff, over whom I worried for at least five years through a job loss and then her kidney problem, received her new kidney from a Florida woman about the same age who died but who was a body parts donor. My condolences go to the generous lady's family.

Simultaneously,I was worried as son number one, DP, in California,
became the victim of a stroke. Over the past few years he has recovered fairly well, but then the economy and the banking crisis caught him up in a web, causing another worry.

Today this has faded, too, as things improve for him, including a 50 per cent army disability award retroactive for quite some time.

Worry. Doesn't stop does it? Couple of weeks ago number two son CT announced "well, Dad, now all your kids have diabetes." A routine blood test had put him into the diabetic category, carrying out the "runs in the family" theory. The four kids' mother was a longtime diabetic as was her mother.

Today I join Lady B here in worrying about her son-in-law currently disabled with a leg swollen three times normal from a yet undiagnosed malady; about her grandson's wife who had a gall bladder operaion yesterday; about a grandson in a motor vehicle accident ;whether the fence at a just-sold house will be built Monday as scheduled by her contractor and whether our new garage door will be installed Tuesday.

Shoot. I told you this might be a series so until next time . . .

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